Is Chaosium going to support BRP anymore?

[threedeesix]

With smart players that means they'd just use the other weapon when they were disengaged and/or in the next fight.

And to be honest, I don't really have as much of a problem with this, as I do the "I attack it with my dagger, now I switch to my sword, now my axe, etc". I know checking for skill increases is fun, and having fun is why everyone is coming to my game in the first place. And to be honest, my group seldom changes weapons in combat anyway, because they know it takes 5 DEX ranks to sheath a weapon and another 5 to ready a new one. They seldom want to give up the initiative. Plus the last player that just dropped their sword to save 5 DEX ranks, cringed when the fast little goblin ran off with it.

Rod

[vagabond]

You could always rule that in a situation like this, you have to let your guard down to switch weapons, in this case giving the troll a free attack. If the character was to survive that, you can still decide against the dagger 'check' unless the combat was to go on significantly longer.

Cruel I know, but it could sway their decisions to do it in the future.

Rod the cruel and heartless GM.

Actually, that is the rule - switching weapons in mid combat does give your

opponent a free strike, and leaves you without a parry.

See Drawing or Exchanging Weapons in the Spot Rules - 5 Dex ranks to

drop one and draw another, 10 Dex ranks to sheathe one and draw another.

-V

[threedeesix]

Actually, that is the rule - switching weapons in mid combat does give your

opponent a free strike, and leaves you without a parry.

See Drawing or Exchanging Weapons in the Spot Rules - 5 Dex ranks to

drop one and draw another, 10 Dex ranks to sheathe one and draw another.

-V

I thought that was the case, but being at work I dont have access to my books.

Rod

[Nightshade]

And to be honest, I don't really have as much of a problem with this, as I do the "I attack it with my dagger, now I switch to my sword, now my axe, etc". I know checking for skill increases is fun, and having fun is why everyone is coming to my game in the first place. And to be honest, my group seldom changes weapons in combat anyway, because they know it takes 5 DEX ranks to sheath a weapon and another 5 to ready a new one. They seldom want to give up the initiative. Plus the last player that just dropped their sword to save 5 DEX ranks, cringed when the fast little goblin ran off with it.

Rod

Well, like I said, with most skill checks its pretty much just pointless silliness anyway. However, there can be reasons to want to build up a few separate weapon skills, at least in RQ; weapons get disarmed, broken or otherwise lost, and wanting to be able to use a backup effectively can actually be valuable before its come up. So someone can have a reason to want each cycle to get ticks in, say, a primary weapon, a smaller backup weapon, a dagger (for close in encounters) and a missile weapon. On a gamist calculation, those make some sense even if the process doesn't.

Other stuff--not so much, unless you're just desperate to have the skills for rare contingencies.

[frogspawner]

This is showcasing a problem that no one has ever raised (well, except frogspawner once). ... Luckily we have PDFs too.

On this subject - does anyone know whether, having bought a PDF, it is then legal to get a copy (just one) printed off professionally?

(And on the other subject, shouldn't the "tick-collecting" stuff have a separate thread?)

[rust]

On this subject - does anyone know whether, having bought a PDF, it is then legal to get a copy (just one) printed off professionally?

According to the FAQ-page of Drive Thru RPG you can have a copy printed

at a copyshop.

(I would provide a link, but Drive Thru RPG has recently started a German

version, and now I can no longer access the English one ...)

[threedeesix]

On this subject - does anyone know whether, having bought a PDF, it is then legal to get a copy (just one) printed off professionally?

(And on the other subject, shouldn't the "tick-collecting" stuff have a separate thread?)

While I don't really know the legal implications, I have always printed out a hard copy of any PDF that I was planning to give more than just a cursory glance. I hate reading from my computer when working on one all day. I would assume, as long as the printed copy remains in the possession of the original purcheser there would be no problem.

On the subject of "tick-collecting", I really wasn't paying attention to the thread and got caught up in the moment. Sorry guys.

Rod

[Thalaba]

I'm Jeff Moeller.

My book is Ashes, to Ashes.

It's been out in pdf for going on a yearIt's out in hard copy courtesy of Chaosium.

Hi Jeff,

Just so the un-informed and the kidders don't have the last word, I just want you to know I've purchased your book from Chaosium. I've been looking forward to it for a while.

BTW, With exchange (the $CAD is low right now), the cheapest shipping, and the price of the book it cost me almost $50.00. I hope you get to buy something good with your share, like a pretzel or something! (mumble mumble Old Ones mumble conspiracy mumble profits)

Gah. The only one who pushes this is me, and I have zero economic incentive to do so. Gah.

No comment.

[frogspawner]

According to the FAQ-page of Drive Thru RPG you can have a copy printed at a copyshop.

I would assume, as long as the printed copy remains in the possession of the original purcheser there would be no problem.

Thanks, gents. That opens up possibililties... (Agreed about reading on computers).

[rleduc]

I just got a nice e-mail from Dustin apologizing for the continued delay and suggesting that the Adventure Contest monograph is still coming soon (hopefully in March)!

Just FYI

[cjbowser]

Thanks, gents. That opens up possibililties... (Agreed about reading on computers).

Worst case, email Dustin for Chaosium's official take on the matter.

[cjbowser]

I just got a nice e-mail from Dustin apologizing for the continued delay and suggesting that the Adventure Contest monograph is still coming soon (hopefully in March)!

Just FYI

I received the same email. I'm not sure if that went out to all participants or only those who were chosen, mainly because I don't know which scenarios were chosen yet.

Maybe they'll have enough scenarios to put out a couple monographs, or a really big one.

[rleduc]

I also do not know who made the cut – I e-mailed Dustin back and asked if he had any idea when the “winners” would be announced. I haven’t heard anything yet.

[ORtrail]

While I don't really know the legal implications, I have always printed out a hard copy of any PDF that I was planning to give more than just a cursory glance. I hate reading from my computer when working on one all day. I would assume, as long as the printed copy remains in the possession of the original purcheser there would be no problem.

On the subject of "tick-collecting", I really wasn't paying attention to the thread and got caught up in the moment. Sorry guys.

Rod

I just grab a PDF copy of Outpost 19, and fully intended to print out a copy for easier reading, plus I'm probably going to want to change things and add a few notes to the margins.

I do wish Outpost 19 was more "printer friendly" though. I don't need the full color space shots, and in fact expected (my first monograph purchase) to see only black and white art.

BTW, I've decided that threedeesix should be limited to one post/day until he gets Swords & Spells finished. The whole point of this thread is getting more material out for BRP, right?

[Jason D]

I also do not know who made the cut – I e-mailed Dustin back and asked if he had any idea when the “winners” would be announced. I haven’t heard anything yet.

I got the email, and I didn't even submit anything.

[Agentorange]

I got the email, and I didn't even submit anything.

Perhaps there will be a blank page in the monograph with a little heading saying: " This would have been Jason's submission "

[NickMiddleton]

I just grab a PDF copy of Outpost 19, and fully intended to print out a copy for easier reading, plus I'm probably going to want to change things and add a few notes to the margins.

I do wish Outpost 19 was more "printer friendly" though. I don't need the full colour space shots, and in fact expected (my first monograph purchase) to see only black and white art.

hehn - I believe Charlie is currently wrestling with converting Outpost 19 to more monograph appropriate / printer friendly b&w graphics. They add to the atmosphere when reading as a PDF, but are definitely a bit of a pain as far as printing is concerned. Mind, IIRC Chaosium also struggled with Ashes to Ashes as IIRC that's a colour interior as well.

Cheers,

Nick

[thekobold]

Thanks for the reply and all of the links Nick. I'll be checking those out (and already have a copy of your fanzine). After my post, I did find the news link to Sword & Spell, which I hope is still actively in development, as well as some other resources. I somewhat regret not looking a bit harder before posting, but really appreciate the responses here that have saved me a great deal of time. Perhaps it partly is the marketing - as I said, I've been out of gaming for quite a while. The BRP ecosystem is a new thing to me as it supports more than just the fantasy genre. It might be just my lack of familiarity with the way supplements are advertised/organized. In the beginning, just to see what was out there, I did an Amazon search for "Chaosium" expecting to find more than I did (about 50 results all but one or two seeming to pertain to the Cthulhu game/mythos, excluding the BRP core rules itself). I'm very glad to have found this site/forums!

I hear what you're saying about the OGL - my day job being working with computers all day, I've been been generally inclined towards GNU/CC types of licensing. You're right in that a lot of poor/mediocre material gets published - both in the software realm as well as in the paper rpg world (a quick visit to the local game store proved your point).

[thekobold]

Welcome back. Good choice on a system.

Thanks for all the links CJ! Great stuff.

[thekobold]

It's a bit offputting to keep reading about how there's no support or no settings for BRP while a pile of my 180 page setting books sit here looking at me. And it is complete: elaborate backstory, organizations, gazetteer, 2 scenarios, options, new rules, camapaign structure, and a year of hobby time to write.

Sorry to put you off - I did see Ashes to Ashes on Chaosium's main site. I couldn't gather from the description there ('The world is not a happy place. This Basic Roleplaying setting casts the adventurers as mavericks in a fantasy world that is losing a war it does not even know that it is fighting. Hidden demons and their mortal minions—many of whom do not even know who their masters truly are—manipulate events from the shadows, experimenting with social control mechanisms to steer the human cattle in the direction that they want them to go. The adventurers' goal is to discover and stop them.') exactly what time of fantasy setting this is - at the moment my prospective players are interested in something they're somewhat familiar with playing, a LotR or Greyhawk type of world. I poked about on the internet looking for preview pages (something like what drivethroughrpg.com offers for example) to see if I could discover more about it, but no dice, so to speak. Just today, I finally found this link at rpg.net and based on what I read there, ('What was once a vibrant World of wealth, learning, magic and high medieval fantasy is now a World of poverty, low magic and scarce resources where people struggle to survive, against the World and against each other.') am planning to order a copy. If it makes a difference (even on principal if not in any substantial $ way), from where's the most profitable way (for you) to do so?

[neorxnawang]

Machs nichts. Either way, I make zero.

(It's a built-in restraint on marketing the BRP support that is out there. I got my $250 last summer, and that's all, folks. It all goes to Chaosium now, and they market how they see fit).

Since I have little economic incentive to talk up the setting, I have only done so in "free" ways. There are AtA threads on this site that talk about it in fair detail, as well as a review in the reviews section. There is also a Yahoo! group (ashesttoashes) (yes, 2 ts) that I moderate in support of it.

[threedeesix]

After my post, I did find the news link to Sword & Spell, which I hope is still actively in development, as well as some other resources.

Very much in development, thanks for your intertest.

Rod

[threedeesix]

at the moment my prospective players are interested in something they're somewhat familiar with playing, a LotR or Greyhawk type of world.

While this is far from an official announcment, I sent out an e-mail to my playtesters last week about the possibility of a setting book jointly authered by myself and one other person to followup the release of Sword & Spell. My design goal was a setting reminicient of Greyhawk, Mystara, or to a lesser degree, Forgotten Realms, to stick with the classic feel.

jkeown took up my offer and sent me a nice proposal, even saying "the format and overall feel will follow that of 1980’s World of Greyhawk Gazetteer."

So, while Sword & Spell will itself remain relativly setting free, it will hopefully be followed up by a specific setting designed for it at a later date.

Again, this is unofficial until I pin down some additional information, but I thought I should mention it due to thekobolds comment.

Rod

Edited March 8, 2009 by threedeesix
I'm a writer not a speller damn it.

[ORtrail]

hehn - I believe Charlie is currently wrestling with converting Outpost 19 to more monograph appropriate / printer friendly b&w graphics. They add to the atmosphere when reading as a PDF, but are definitely a bit of a pain as far as printing is concerned. Mind, IIRC Chaosium also struggled with Ashes to Ashes as IIRC that's a colour interior as well.

Cheers,

Nick

Nick, I should have mentioned before that I enjoyed reading your take on the FutureWorld setting in Outpost 19.

That said, those maps? I find a detailed b&w map, like what you did in Uncounted Worlds for Ulfland to be better than a colored one. What did you use to create that Ulfland map? Or was it done by hand?

[NickMiddleton]

Nick, I should have mentioned before that I enjoyed reading your take on the FutureWorld setting in Outpost 19.

That said, those maps? I find a detailed b&w map, like what you did in Uncounted Worlds for Ulfland to be better than a coloured one. What did you use to create that Ulfland map? Or was it done by hand?

Most of the Ulfland maps were done in Bentley Microstation, then converted to a more "production friendly" graphic format - the originals are in colour. The floor plans and the map of Tarinport are doctored scans of hand drawn maps. The Outpost 19 maps are also originally colour Microstation diagrams, but I was never happy with them and meant to rework them but we ran out of time. I keep meaning to overhaul them and send Dustin a copy to put up on Chaosium's site.

Nick