Q&A with the new BRP Author

[NickMiddleton]

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

He's popped up on the RQ Rules mailing list a couple of times and seems a thoroughly decent chap - I love Other Suns back in the mid-eighties and was completely oblivious to the whole "furry" issue at the time - but I was never comfortable with the excessive mathematics in places, nor the starship system.

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.

Actually, the "ancillary" SF subsystems in Space opera (Starships, Starship Combat, Planetary generation etc) are pretty good and not excessively baroque IMO, its the rest of the game that's bizarrely complex. But then, I'm one of those people who don't think starship design and combat systems are essential for an SF game...

Cheers,

Nick Middleton

[Atgxtg]

Tell me about it.

Back before MRQ was released and things started heating up over at the MRQ site, I noted that there were seven authors credited in the MRQ rulebook and drew a Gloranthan Red Goddess parallel that could have been used in the RQ fans didn't like the forthcoming product. As far as I'm concerned, the parallel stands.

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.

I expect the third, am not surprised by the fourth, and am pleased by the second. The first doesn't thrill me, as it usually means the product is so shoddy it wasn't worth buying. It's when something goes into the 41/2 limbo that scares me. Things like Chasoium's HEROQUEST, in limbo for over a decade (I had coffee go up my nose when I heard the Greg was releasing an HQ RPG, even if through a different company), or pretty much the entire Decipher RPG line (not dead, but as good as).

As far as writing for an RPG goes, well, I sorta need a rulebook. If I offer to write something I wonder if Dustin would send me some rules?

[Jason D]

(snip) or pretty much the entire Decipher RPG line (not dead, but as good as).

The Decipher Star Trek and LotR lines are both stone cold dead. I believe they've lost the rights to publish anything for them.

As far as writing for an RPG goes, well, I sorta need a rulebook. If I offer to write something I wonder if Dustin would send me some rules?

You'd have to take that up with them.

[Atgxtg]

The Decipher Star Trek and LotR lines are both stone cold dead. I believe they've lost the rights to publish anything for them.

Yeah, and it's about time. THose of us over at the TrekRPG site, including a couple of line reps, are completely disgusted with Decipher. But the three years of line reps saying "I don't know, no one answers my emails" was unfair to the fans.

You'd have to take that up with them.

That be one heckuva sales pitch. "Hi, give me you game and I write something for it!". Worthy of an Issaries Rune Lord. Wonder if I could adapt that to dating.

BTW, Jason, We're not griping at you or Chasoium (okay, so we all want BRP now, but that's a good kinda gripe), just that all us old timers have gone through enough ups and downs with our favorite RPGs to take a "wait and see" approach. We all sort of secretly expecting/dreading that the bottom is going to fall out and are bracing ourselves for the fall. When that does happen we are usually caught a bit off guard.Even worse is the fear that some big RPG company might snatch up our favorite RPGs and pervent them by adding classes/levels and XP charts.

'cuz it's happened before.

I'm afraid of the RPG bogeyman.

[Nightshade]

He's popped up on the RQ Rules mailing list a couple of times and seems a thoroughly decent chap - I love Other Suns back in the mid-eighties and was completely oblivious to the whole "furry" issue at the time - but I was never comfortable with the excessive mathematics in places, nor the starship system.

Well, he _is_ a mathemetician by training, after all.

Actually, the "ancillary" SF subsystems in Space opera (Starships, Starship Combat, Planetary generation etc) are pretty good and not excessively baroque IMO, its the rest of the game that's bizarrely complex. But then, I'm one of those people who don't think starship design and combat systems are essential for an SF game...

I recall finding the one time I tried to engage with starship creation that it defeated me, but its been 20 years or more so the details are fuzzy.

I don't think they're essential for an SF game per se, but the lack of them can constrain the sort of SF games you can run fairly seriously.

[Nightshade]

Back before MRQ was released and things started heating up over at the MRQ site, I noted that there were seven authors credited in the MRQ rulebook and drew a Gloranthan Red Goddess parallel that could have been used in the RQ fans didn't like the forthcoming product. As far as I'm concerned, the parallel stands.

Well, I was one of the people on the first playtest list, so I'm, shall we say, not unbiased.

I expect the third, am not surprised by the fourth, and am pleased by the second. The first doesn't thrill me, as it usually means the product is so shoddy it wasn't worth buying. It's when something goes into the 41/2 limbo

Sometimes it just means the publisher actually has a realistic idea of scheduling.

that scares me. Things like Chasoium's HEROQUEST, in limbo for over a decade (I had coffee go up my nose when I heard the Greg was releasing an HQ RPG, even if through a different company), or pretty much the entire Decipher RPG line (not dead, but as good as).

It will probably explain a lot if I mention the company I've done work for is Eden Studios. Good people at heart, but about as prone to biting off more than they can chew than anyone in the hobby.

[Sorloc]

I liked the starship / vehicle creation rules in ICE's SpaceMaster supplements, Star Strike and Armored Assault. They became Bladestorm, then ICE lost the rights to the game, the minis, even the setting. :confused:

[RMS]

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

First, I do agree with using metric. (For one, it's just a superior measurement system and I absolutely hate having to deal with both systems on a day-to-day basis, when there's no added value to doing it.)

However, I've never understood the idea that you have to convert anything. At the granularity of RPGs, 1 yard = 1 meter. Conversion complete. There's no need to dig the calculator out and start doing 2.54 cm/inch or anything.

[Conrad]

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.

Anyone reading your replies in this thread can tell that there is a lack of starship construction rules in the new book.

I would love for someone to resurrect the Worlds Beyond starship rules for a future BRP supplement. However I don't expect this new BRP rulebook to include such a thing. A separate and more specific supplement for space adventures, or detailing a certain space opera background would be the right place for such rules. EDIT With the new BRP rulesbook you can run starship combat. There are some stats for space vehicles like a starfighter, transport and cargo ship plus certain weapons ( missile and energy turrets) have enough range for space combat.

Edited August 15, 2008 by Conrad

[Conrad]

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.

This is good news, there are a few more rules that can be used for space opera games.

[Enpeze]

[Detour Mode ON]

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!

yes. The new Gurps Spaceships is quite good and I really like it. I bought it 2 weeks ago and i played a little bit around and constructed some traveller ships. You can construct nearly every type of space ship with them by attaching different "modules" to the hull. Gurps fans say its rather light in complexity but for me as rule minimalist its of considerable complexity. I am not so fond of the space combat chapter which seem unnecessary complex. But OTOH it has nice ideas how to give every player on a typical PC trader ship a specific role during combat. Maybe I should read it once more. It uses miles per second as speed and weapon range unit, but also cm for gun caliber.

[Enpeze]

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.

In gaming reality most gamers play a lot more games with magic or psi included and not spaceship combat. So in theory you are right that magic is in the same class of "subsystem" as spaceship combat but in practice magic/psi is much more used. So I think it has more rights to be in the core rule book.

[Nightshade]

In gaming reality most gamers play a lot more games with magic or psi included and not spaceship combat. So in theory you are right that magic is in the same class of "subsystem" as spaceship combat but in practice magic/psi is much more used. So I think it has more rights to be in the core rule book.

That's only true if you want to bias the use of your system toward fantasy and away from SF. Or put another way, its true in a fashion, but not in a fashion I think serves a multipurpose game well; in particular, since it has two magic systems, I suspect pulling one would have still served that audience while leaving room for at least some basic vehicular combat rules and possibly a simple spacecraft building system such as they had in Amazing Engine: Bughunters.

[Simlasa]

I'm fine with there not being any spaceship info in the basic book... if someones going to do it I'd like it fairly detailed and well thought out... which would probably take up more space than most magic rules I've seen.

[Jason D]

Is it possible to move the "complaining about the lack of a starship design system" discussion to a different thread?

I started this thread to provide answers for people curious about the book - not really for a lengthy back-and-forth about a question that's been asked, answered, asked why, answered why, etc.

Not meaning to sound cranky about it, but it's dominated the last few pages of the thread.

[badcat]

Apparently I started it, sorry.

[Atgxtg]

Apparently I started it, sorry.

Badkitty.

So Jason,

1)What's your favorite new bit in BRP?

2)What's the thing you are most proud of?

3) Did the saling ship rules from Stormbinger/RQ3 make it into BRP< or is our galley stuck up the creek without an oar?

4) How about rules for age and aging?

[Atgxtg]

First, I do agree with using metric. (For one, it's just a superior measurement system and I absolutely hate having to deal with both systems on a day-to-day basis, when there's no added value to doing it.)

However, I've never understood the idea that you have to convert anything. At the granularity of RPGs, 1 yard = 1 meter. Conversion complete. There's no need to dig the calculator out and start doing 2.54 cm/inch or anything.

AQbout the only "bad" things about metric are:

1) Many Americans and unfamilar with metric and can't tell the difference between a kilogram and a kilometer.

2) If doesn't have the right flavor for a lot of historical settings. Something just isn't right about an adventurer going into a pub and ordering a "half a liter" (ha'litre? yuck!) of ale.

You right about conversions though. For the most part, I like to use "Paces" rather than yards or meters. Good enough for most people to work it out, and has a nice archaic ring to it. But for the most part, I7m with you, and just go with 1meter=1 yard, 1 kilogram=2pounds, etc. It's not like the characters are actually weighting or measuring things that often, anyway (maybe the butcher has his thumb on the scale?).

[Nightshade]

Is it possible to move the "complaining about the lack of a starship design system" discussion to a different thread?

I started this thread to provide answers for people curious about the book - not really for a lengthy back-and-forth about a question that's been asked, answered, asked why, answered why, etc.

Not meaning to sound cranky about it, but it's dominated the last few pages of the thread.

Sorry, Jason, that's my fault and I'll stop responding to posts on it. My apologies.

[Jason D]

1)What's your favorite new bit in BRP?

The little things, like some new much-needed skills (Strategy and Teach), some of the suggestions for higher-powered gaming (heroic HP, for example), and some of the "new" creatures. I also liked writing up the NPC digest, showing the range and variety of NPCs (and by default, PCs) the game is capable of.

2)What's the thing you are most proud of?

The GMing advice sections, and just completing it despite the incredible chao my life went through during the writing process.

Least proud would be taking so long on it. See my blog entry on the subject for more details on why.

3) Did the saling ship rules from Stormbinger/RQ3 make it into BRP< or is our galley stuck up the creek without an oar?

No, they didn't. Ironically, given my mention above about not wanting to include rules for spaceships, the ship sailing rules were not added specifically because it would have skewed the book too far towards fantasy/medieval, and I wanted to keep it agnostic in regards to setting.

4) How about rules for age and aging?

They're in there as an optional rule.

[technoshaman]

Hello I am new the forums and have been a fan of the system mostly with CoC and Nephilim. My question about the power system. Are the powers, spellls, mutations and psychic abilities be its own system/stat or will it be spells/powers done as skills or advantages? Will it be like D&D spells or will it be GURPS magic system like each spell will be part of the standard skill list?

Edited December 27, 2008 by technoshaman

[Jason D]

Hello I am new the forums and have been a fan of the system mostly with CoC and Nephilim. My question about the power system. Are the powers, spellls, mutations and psychic abilities be its own system/stat or will it be spells/powers done as skills or advantages? Will it be like D&D spells or will it be GURPS magic system like each spell will be part of the standard skill list?

There are five separate power types presented in the core rulebook. Though they're somewhat compatible, the GM is advised to pick one power type that works for the setting and stick with it.

It isn't hard to make them play together, but they're not balanced against one another at all.

Magic Spells are from Magic World, from the Worlds of Wonder boxed set. They are handled like skills - you pick how many power points (levels) you're going to throw into a spell, roll % for success, and apply results based on the level of power points used. Levels are limited by 1/2 your character's INT. For example, if you have Blast 55% and INT 16, you can throw up to 8 levels of Blast. Roll under 55%, spend 8 power points, and you've got a 8d6 Blast attack. The more levels you throw into a spell, the slower it is, so you would go at a lower DEX rank. Magic spells increase like skills.

Mutations (based on those from Hawkmoon) are almost always either modifications to characteristics or skills, or sometimes allow other (or diminished) use of a skill. Some of them have a power, like Pheromones or Regeneration. Some are bodily modifications such as Natural Weapon or Wings, while others are cosmetic with some minor in-game effects, like Coloration or Luminescence.

Psychic Abilities are usually skill-based, or skill and POW vs. an opposing value based. They have a variable power point cost to use. They increase with experience when used successfully. It is loosely-based on the system from Elfquest.

Sorcery is the system from Elric!/Stormbringer, and doesn't require spell rolls. Spells usually have levels, equivalent to how many power points they cost to cast. Usually, they simply work. Characters can know a limited number of spell levels at any given time, but can cast the spells they know freely, assuming they have power points and some required element (like a summon elemental spell might require some element handy). Sorcery doesn't increase in experience so much as sorcery-using characters learn new spells, or more levels of already-known spells.

Super powers are based on the ones from the Super-World book from Worlds of Wonder, and the later Superworld game. They are rated in levels, and sometimes simply work, sometimes must beat an opposed characteristic on the resistance table, and sometimes use an existing or new skill to succeed. Some might increase the utility of a normal skill in a "super" way. Sometimes they augment a characteristic or other character attribute. Sometimes they grant a new ability that isn't covered by one of these factors. They can be increased through a variety of means, but not by the traditional skill/experience method.

[Trifletraxor]

For example, if you have Blast 55% and INT 16, you can throw up to 8 levels of Blast. Roll under 55%, spend 8 power points, and you've got a 8d6 Blast attack.

I'm quite a bit worried with the power here. 8d6 points of damage for 8 mp? What is a warrior supposed to do with that? It will fry everything...

SGL.

[Nightshade]

I'm quite a bit worried with the power here. 8d6 points of damage for 8 mp? What is a warrior supposed to do with that? It will fry everything...

SGL.

Well, keep in mind that at least in the vanilla case, that's pretty much dumping all your magical resources in one shot; it also sounds like it has the classic S&S idea that while he's building up the spell you go up and hit him.

That doesn't mean you aren't right to some degree, though.

[Nightshade]

There are five separate power types presented in the core rulebook. Though they're somewhat compatible, the GM is advised to pick one power type that works for the setting and stick with it.

It isn't hard to make them play together, but they're not balanced against one another at all.

Magic Spells are from Magic World, from the Worlds of Wonder boxed set. They are handled like skills - you pick how many power points (levels) you're going to throw into a spell, roll % for success, and apply results based on the level of power points used. Levels are limited by 1/2 your character's INT. For example, if you have Blast 55% and INT 16, you can throw up to 8 levels of Blast. Roll under 55%, spend 8 power points, and you've got a 8d6 Blast attack. The more levels you throw into a spell, the slower it is, so you would go at a lower DEX rank. Magic spells increase like skills.

Mutations (based on those from Hawkmoon) are almost always either modifications to characteristics or skills, or sometimes allow other (or diminished) use of a skill. Some of them have a power, like Pheromones or Regeneration. Some are bodily modifications such as Natural Weapon or Wings, while others are cosmetic with some minor in-game effects, like Coloration or Luminescence.

Psychic Abilities are usually skill-based, or skill and POW vs. an opposing value based. They have a variable power point cost to use. They increase with experience when used successfully. It is loosely-based on the system from Elfquest.

Sorcery is the system from Elric!/Stormbringer, and doesn't require spell rolls. Spells usually have levels, equivalent to how many power points they cost to cast. Usually, they simply work. Characters can know a limited number of spell levels at any given time, but can cast the spells they know freely, assuming they have power points and some required element (like a summon elemental spell might require some element handy). Sorcery doesn't increase in experience so much as sorcery-using characters learn new spells, or more levels of already-known spells.

Super powers are based on the ones from the Super-World book from Worlds of Wonder, and the later Superworld game. They are rated in levels, and sometimes simply work, sometimes must beat an opposed characteristic on the resistance table, and sometimes use an existing or new skill to succeed. Some might increase the utility of a normal skill in a "super" way. Sometimes they augment a characteristic or other character attribute. Sometimes they grant a new ability that isn't covered by one of these factors. They can be increased through a variety of means, but not by the traditional skill/experience method.

Thanks for the extended summary, Jason. Do I gather from you discussion of sorcery that the rank of effect is no longer connected with the skill level in any way? I know in MagicWorld you took a 10% penalty for every rank over the first.