Q&A with the new BRP Author

[The Tweaker]

Hi, Jason.

First a quick quote from Xenobe, in the "[Worlds Beyond] Anyone know anything about it?" thread at rpg.net:

The new BRP book won't have a starship design or combat rules section. It will have more fantasy oriented rules in it than SF. There are some things in it for SF gaming such as psionics and powered armour, weapons and robots.

And my question is: Do you think this is true? Is there any kind of bias towards some genres over others in the new BRP book?

I think it certainly looks like the book will be quite genre-neutral, and I suppose Xenobe's comment stems from the fact that it will not include any specific rules for starship design/combat and - as I've already said elsewhere, I don't think it really needs them -, but I would like to know your view on this.

Thanks!

[Jason D]

And my question is: Do you think this is true? Is there any kind of bias towards some genres over others in the new BRP book?

There is a grain of truth to it - there certainly isn't what anyone would consider to be a robust vehicle construction system, and the vehicular combat rules are very light. You could probably fake either of them, but it isn't anything like Traveller or Mechwarrior, for example.

If there is any bias with the core rules, it's the same one BRP has always had - that it isn't really focused on settings where complex vehicular combat (or detailed resolutions of mass combat, for another example) are essential.

However, that isn't to say that someone won't come along and write a kick-ass starship construction system for BRP. The thing I wrote was just the core rulebook - it's specifically designed to have additional systems added to it where needed.

[Enpeze]

Yes. Starship construction rules or starship combat really dont belong to a core rule book. Rather to a specific BRP space-opera expansion.

[The Tweaker]

Thanks, Jason.

And continuing with the sci-fi bent of my questions... Does the book include rules on typical sci-fi hazards and conditions, such as different gravities or exposure to vacuum?

Oh, and now I think about it... How are economics handled? (i.e., how are equipment prices and starting money handled?) Does the book use a generic currency (credits, money units, etc.)?

[badcat]

On a slight detour of the main thread subject, does anyone have a suggestion for a published set of starship construction/combat that would fit a BRP game?

[Jason D]

Does the book include rules on typical sci-fi hazards and conditions, such as different gravities or exposure to vacuum?

There are spot rules for vacuum, radiation, and zero-gravity combat. If I recall, some of the other sections in the spot rules address (briefly) stuff like non-breathable or corrosive atmospheres.

Oh, and now I think about it... How are economics handled? (i.e., how are equipment prices and starting money handled?) Does the book use a generic currency (credits, money units, etc.)?

This is probably going to be one of the more controversial aspects of the core rulebook.

Equipment, vehicles, etc. are basically classified as "Cheap" through "Priceless", which correspond to the wealth levels from "Destitute" through "Wealthy". Additionally, two other values are "Free" (you can find it or make it easily from found materials) and "Restricted" (ownership is extremely limited to government or military use).

Wealth levels are suggested by professions, and are subject to GM approval, based on the setting. Use your Status roll to buy stuff outside your wealth level.

BRP setting sourcebooks are expected to address appropriate currency directly.

[Jason D]

On a slight detour of the main thread subject, does anyone have a suggestion for a published set of starship construction/combat that would fit a BRP game?

Worlds Beyond has a 16-page BRP-compatible chapter called "Starship Design/Construction."

[The Tweaker]

[Detour Mode ON]

On a slight detour of the main thread subject, does anyone have a suggestion for a published set of starship construction/combat that would fit a BRP game?

Mmm. I've heard that the new 'Spaceships' supplement for GURPS is pretty good, and a lot more abstract than their previous Vehicles or Space books, with rules both for building starships and starship combat. There is a preview here.

[/Detour Mode OFF]

And this takes me to yet another question: Does the book use Imperial or Metric units? I think the default for most BRP books I know is Metric, if my memory serves me, but I'd like to know. As a former GURPS fan I am used to make more or less approximate conversions in my head, but I'd like to be spared the effort in my BRP games!

[The Tweaker]

There are spot rules for vacuum, radiation, and zero-gravity combat. If I recall, some of the other sections in the spot rules address (briefly) stuff like non-breathable or corrosive atmospheres.

Equipment, vehicles, etc. are basically classified as "Cheap" through "Priceless", which correspond to the wealth levels from "Destitute" through "Wealthy". Additionally, two other values are "Free" (you can find it or make it easily from found materials) and "Restricted" (ownership is extremely limited to government or military use).

Wealth levels are suggested by professions, and are subject to GM approval, based on the setting. Use your Status roll to buy stuff outside your wealth level.

Wow . Thanks once more, Jason. This is actually good news to me, as I am not a fan of detailed currency systems. Nowadays I like to abstract this kind of things.

Waiting for this book is killing me...

[Trifletraxor]

And this takes me to yet another question: Does the book use Imperial or Metric units? I think the default for most BRP books I know is Metric, if my memory serves me, but I'd like to know. As a former GURPS fan I am used to make more or less approximate conversions in my head, but I'd like to be spared the effort in my BRP games!

This is a good question!

Metric please!

SGL.

[Jason D]

Does the book use Imperial or Metric units? I think the default for most BRP books I know is Metric, if my memory serves me, but I'd like to know.

Metric, with some Imperial conversions where needed, and sometimes used in flavor text.

[Simlasa]

Yay for metric!

That's one thing that always bugged me about GURPS... it just seemed wrong that it wasn't using metric measurements.

I like Worlds Beyond a lot... but haven't really tried out the spaceship rules.

When that sort of thing has come up in our games we've always used Full Thrust with very satisfactory results.

[Nightshade]

Yes. Starship construction rules or starship combat really dont belong to a core rule book. Rather to a specific BRP space-opera expansion.

By that argument, I'd think things like the sorcery and psi systems don't belong in the core book either; either is as campaign-specific as a spaceship combat system.

The real truth is, I expect, that Jason tended to use the material he had at hand to refine and include, and there's been far more fantasy implimentations of BRP than SF; to the best of my knowledge, the only published ones were Ringworld, FutureWorld and Worlds Beyond; the first two had no spacecraft systems for reasons that would be self-evident from their focus, and the latter isn't something he could work from because it was third party.

[frogspawner]

Metric?? Oh, no! Oh well - nothing that half an hour with a calculator and a thick black marker pen won't fix, I hope...

[Jason D]

By that argument, I'd think things like the sorcery and psi systems don't belong in the core book either; either is as campaign-specific as a spaceship combat system.

The real truth is, I expect, that Jason tended to use the material he had at hand to refine and include, and there's been far more fantasy implimentations of BRP than SF; to the best of my knowledge, the only published ones were Ringworld, FutureWorld and Worlds Beyond; the first two had no spacecraft systems for reasons that would be self-evident from their focus, and the latter isn't something he could work from because it was third party.

Not really.

BRP, in all of its incarnations, has primarily been about characters rather than vehicles. These character might be investigators, sorcerers, adventurers, spacefarers, superheroes... but the BRP game has always treated vehicular combat (and vehicles in general) lightly, and I consciously chose to stick with that decision.

It wasn't just a case of "what was there", as by that token I'd have included the ship combat rules from Elric! and had much more major adapted material from Ringworld.

[Nightshade]

Not really.

BRP, in all of its incarnations, has primarily been about characters rather than vehicles. These character might be investigators, sorcerers, adventurers,

I'd argue that's entirely an issue of focus, however; for example, I don't think it would be possible to not place some emphasis on vehicles in some subgenres (Star Wars style games, for example, have too much involvement of small vehicular combat for that not to be relevant, even if the focus _was_ on characters. Same for any mecha game).

Your explanation of your thought process however, is noted. I somewhat disagree with the conclusion you came to from it, but you're the author, not me.

[Jason D]

I somewhat disagree with the conclusion you came to from it, but you're the author, not me.

This is a good time to note, once more, that Dustin Wright at Chaosium is eager to hear from people who'd like to be authors of BRP sourcebooks.

[Atgxtg]

On a slight detour of the main thread subject, does anyone have a suggestion for a published set of starship construction/combat that would fit a BRP game?

Yeah, several suggestions. It depends on what sort of SCI-FI ships and combat you want. One suggestion (and perhaps the simplest method) would be to use the starship combat system from the CODA edition of STAR TREK. Here's why:

1) The starship combat stats are set on a different scale than the character combat rules, so you could use them "as is" without worrying if theyt match up well with BRP weapon scores. Of course you could alway equate 1 Hull pont to 100 BRP HP and 1 point of Penetration to 3d6x10 damage and work the rest out to BRP terms if you wanted to, but you don't have to.

2) Spaceship combat is abstract, with ship performing maneuvers like strafing runs, weapon locks, hard about and so on. Movement is done through range bads (like short/medium/long/etcd>) rather than on a map. This makes is easy to run "rules lite".

3) Most tasks are done by rolling 2 or 3d6 plus modifiers vs a target number. That makes it easy to just multiply the modifiers by 5 or 10 and apply to D100. Since most taks are tests aginst a skill rating, that plays right into the ways things are done in BRP.

4) The ship construction rules are simple and stand alone from the RPG rules (see point #1). Basically you decide how big your ship is, and that gives you a number of SPACES that you can fill up with goodies like weapons, engines, and shields.

Badcat, I've got something lke a dozen Sci-Fi Rpgs, so PM me with what sort of setting your shooting for, and how complex you want the rules, and I'll try to find something.

[Nightshade]

This is a good time to note, once more, that Dustin Wright at Chaosium is eager to hear from people who'd like to be authors of BRP sourcebooks.

And please note that my response was a disagreement, not an intended slam. On the whole, I've heard nothing but good things about the job you've done with this from playtesters, and I think your willingness to spend your time answering fan questions is admirable.

[NickMiddleton]

On a slight detour of the main thread subject, does anyone have a suggestion for a published set of starship construction/combat that would fit a BRP game?

FGU's Space Opera - the rest of the game is an archetypal FGU mess of over complexity and ad hoc design, but the Starships are glorious pulp SF creations: Trans-gravitic Inter-phase Sub-space Anomaly (TISA) drives! Star Torpedo's! Blast cannons! Star ships blatting around asteroid belts at (non-relativistic!?!) large portions of C. Ah me, happy memories. They're also far more approachable as I recall than the more sober (and excessively mathematical) equivalents in Niall Shapero's Other Suns (the other BRP SF game).

Cheers,

Nick Middleton

[Jason D]

And please note that my response was a disagreement, not an intended slam. On the whole, I've heard nothing but good things about the job you've done with this from playtesters, and I think your willingness to spend your time answering fan questions is admirable.

I didn't take it as a slam... more as a "It would be awesome if someone could write a starship creation/modification/combat system for BRP."

I would happily use it, though I've got no interest in writing it.

Sorry if the answer came back as argumentative.

[Atgxtg]

This is a good time to note, once more, that Dustin Wright at Chaosium is eager to hear from people who'd like to be authors of BRP sourcebooks.

Interested, but I7m hesitant to bite the hook until I at least see the bait. I want to see what BRP looks like. I'm gunshy after seeing how the "return of the classic RuneQuest system" turned out. :eek:

I'll be happy when I can flip through the BRP book and see all the familar RQ-based goodness.

Plus see what's been modified.

[Nightshade]

FGU's Space Opera - the rest of the game is an archetypal FGU mess of over complexity and ad hoc design, but the Starships are glorious pulp SF creations: Trans-gravitic Inter-phase Sub-space Anomaly (TISA) drives! Star Torpedo's! Blast cannons! Star ships blatting around asteroid belts at (non-relativistic!?!) large portions of C. Ah me, happy memories. They're also far more approachable as I recall than the more sober (and excessively mathematical) equivalents in Niall Shapero's Other Suns (the other BRP SF game).

Cheers,

Nick Middleton

I don't know how I forgot Other Suns, given I used to know Nicolai.

I think both it and Space Opera suffer from being rather more complicated in execution than most people probably want to deal with in BRP typically, though.

[Nightshade]

I didn't take it as a slam... more as a "It would be awesome if someone could write a starship creation/modification/combat system for BRP."

I would happily use it, though I've got no interest in writing it.

Sorry if the answer came back as argumentative.

No, I just didn't want you to take it as a "If I was writing the game _I'd_ have done it right." I'd probably just have left out something else more important.

(Ironically, none of the games I'm considering running with BRP likely really need a starship creation game; one's based partly on FutureWorld (and therefor uses interplanetary gates as its primary travel method), and the other, while it has a spacecraft as the origin point of the scenario, it crashes during the lead in and is never seen again...)

[Nightshade]

Interested, but I7m hesitant to bite the hook until I at least see the bait. I want to see what BRP looks like. I'm gunshy after seeing how the "return of the classic RuneQuest system" turned out. :eek:

Tell me about it.

I'll be happy when I can flip through the BRP book and see all the familar RQ-based goodness.

Plus see what's been modified.

I have to admit after my last experience with doing work for the game industry, I'd also be prone to looking at someone else and going "You go first." One of the things that will be somewhat telling to me is how long it actually takes for it to get out. In the game industry, releases tend to run to about five tiers:

1. "We're more or less on time"

2. "We're late, but at least here it is"

3. "We're backed up because of product in the pipeline/cashflow/personal problems, but it is coming out"

4. "We're going to try really hard to get it out"

5. "We've cancelled it/gone out of business".

Outside of a couple big names, I almost expect the third; I'm pretty much astounded when I get the first.