CoC7 rules innovations - portable to other BRP games?

[smiorgan]

It seems to me that two substantial rules innovations of CoC7 are 

- Pushing rolls

- Bonus and penalty dice

Would you use them in another d100 / BRP game? 

I think they both could be used to add more drama and chaos to a Stormbringer game. Especially if you use the older versions of the game (editions 1-4) which are quite rules light, do not have many modifiers, levels of success, and have generally lower skill %.

In contrast,  I would not use them in a RQ3 game.

 

[SDLeary]

Bonus and penalty dice might be a nice "modern" way to replace the old static situational bonus and penalties, not sure about pushing though. Perhaps as a lower form of DI? And why not RQ3? Could change up the flavor slightly.

SDLeary

[smiorgan]

4 hours ago, SDLeary said:

Bonus and penalty dice might be a nice "modern" way to replace the old static situational bonus and penalties, not sure about pushing though. Perhaps as a lower form of DI? And why not RQ3? Could change up the flavor slightly.

SDLeary

Pushing rolls offers a narratively meaningful universal answer to the old question "How many times can I attempt skill x?".  I like the fact that it is a narrative rather than simulationist device and that you do not have to think what an attempt means for each skill and situation. It fits Stormbringer because when you overdo things and fail the Lords of Chaos, or perhaps Balo, take a little revenge on you. I do not think it fits the more simulationist spirit of RQ3 or RQ6, though.

Penalty dice can be a fun substitute of -20% for multiple parries. And you can say that a buckler ignores the first penalty, a medium shield the first two. Rolling many dice is fun and feels chaotic but it blurs the readability of success chances that do not correspond anymore to a percentile dice roll. With the right game mood this can be a feature: when things get confused or supernatural entities intervene the outcomes become less transparent. That's why I feel it fits Stormbringer (and obviously a horror game like CoC) but not necessarily another kind of BRP game.    

[Atgxtg]

I could see bonus dice used to reflect they way some Gloranthan magic is supposed to work. Rather than a Bladesharp spell, per say, the character gets a bonus dice. Quite a few spells could be dropped for some sort of Runic association use to get bonus dice. Kinda like bring Heroquest's magic to RQ without being so abstract.

[soltakss]

I was introduced to Pushing rolls at a convention and we tried and liked it. However, when we started using Hero Points, pushing became redundant and we don't use it any more.

[Mankcam]

The Bonus/Penalty Dice is a great idea if you don’t want fiddly modifiers, although Mythras’s modifiers (optional simple variant) works just as easy with  +/- 20% and 40%. So all my BRP games now use one of these ways of calculating modifiers, however the Bonus/Penalty Dice feels the more pulpy of the two. Depends on what flavour I want to run.

For RQ I would go with +/- 20% & 40% modifiers, although I think if magic used the Bonus/Penalty Dice that would be a nice touch, I agree it would make it feel a bit more handwavey and magical.  In fact I am sort of doing this with my Pulp Cthulhu game. I use +/- 20% & 40% modifiers for natural modifiers, yet use the Bonus/Penalty Dice if PCs are performing actions that benefit from their Pulp Stunts. It makes the pulpiness shine, it feels quite good in this context.

Pushing is another great mechanic, but as stated above, settings that use a Hero/Fate Pt mechanic may make it a bit redundant 

A good idea from CoC 7E that I have ported to my typical BRP game is the skill levels. Having that extra level of success (Hard Success = half skill %) is very handy. It was already present to some degree in various spot rules, but having it pertain to all rolls has been a useful way of determining who has the better success in opposed rolls. Great for Dodge as well, it prevents Dodge being a super skill

Not a huge fan of recording core characteristics as a %, and I never updated that part of CoC 7E. Yeah I know it’s there for derived skills, but it looks inconsistent with all the usual stat blocks, and it just looks weird when you write down the STR, CON, SIZ for large beasts etc

 

Edited January 15, 2018 by Mankcam