BRP Call of Cthulhu Ruleset

[realistik]

I've received some PM requests for our CoC ruleset, but as I understand the legalities of it, we're not allowed to release it. Besides that, it's not in a 'releasable' form at the moment, and until we start playing again, I don't have any plans to clean it up. If there is sufficient interest, I'd be willing to provide the graphics that we CREATED for it, along with tips/instructions for creating the ruleset.

I realize not everybody is an XML whiz or anything, but we did this ruleset in under two weeks from start to finish, including all data entry and graphics creation. I don't claim to be competent with XML myself, but with a few tips from this forum I managed to get all the coding done as well as it could be done with the current FG implementation.

There are still several things I want in this ruleset that I just can't figure out how to do with SW's XML setup. I expect the scripting in the 'upcoming' release will allow me to do pretty much all I want, but I suppose maybe we'll find out next year or something.

Another thing I've wanted to do is create a ruleset for Chill (the Mayfair Games version) but I'm not even going to attempt it until the update is out.

[Matchstick]

I wonder how Chill would work with regards to copyrights... I'd love to see that ruleset. I still have my Chill boxed set.

It's out of print and production right? Does anyone own the rights?

[joeru]

I wonder how Chill would work with regards to copyrights... I'd love to see that ruleset. I still have my Chill boxed set.

It's out of print and production right? Does anyone own the rights?

You mean this game: https://www.chillrpg.com/ ? Seems like it's about to get a new edition out. Besides, being out of print or production has nothing to do with copyright status.

[Matchstick]

Well, I'm pretty sure that the same game, I remember SAVE as the group the heroes are from. The art (unsurprisingly) is completely different, just the look of the game is different, but I'm pretty sure it's the same.

Thanks for that link, I'd have never known!

[realistik]

Yeah, the Mayfair edition is OOP for sure, but still copyrighted. The new one (at chillrpg.com) has been delayed so long I've pretty much written it off at this point.

[Abdiel]

Hey there Realistik. I am definitely interested in whatever you and your group might have come up with for the graphical assets. Do you think the coding on the charactersheet would be beyond the scope of fair use? I'd definitely be interested in whatever info you can share.

FYI Did you know that Runequest just published an SRD Toolkit - OGL and all that cal.

[Shrp77]

Personally I can't imagine why a charactersheet for a game would be considered violating copyrighted material as long as it doesn't have any descriptions of the game mechanics. Some sheets have hit locations on them, and I'd be buggered to bother removing such information (it's not like you actually have to own the book as a player in order to play the game - it's enough that the game master has them).

It's typical of the law to not put any distinction between actual content and game accessories that do not give any more to the player than a means to jot down information in an ordered manner...

I've had a bad day so far, so I'm shutting up now to go in a corner and suck my thumb... :(

[Snikle]

I am not a copyright lawyer (there are enough people on here who claim to know more about it than I do) but here goes. I think creating a character sheet (use your own art tho) should not constitute a copyright breach. I dont see why even including a few tables (ie to hit or something like that) would either, in so long as you didnt provide any indepth details about the setting, character generation, or game mechanics, I personally think you would be ok....oh and don't SELL it either.
But hey, like I said, I am not a copyright lawyer. Frankly imnho, if we created a slew of Character Sheet Rulesets (CSR...there I coined a term for them), the publishers of the games should probably be happy. Most people are not happy with digital versions of printed material and end up purchasing the hardcopy version. Might actually open up their games to other that would not play them.

[Shrp77]

If anything, I would imagine the companies would be more interested in getting compatibility for their games out into programs like FG. That would increase the availability of the game as more and more mediums would support it.

PS: by availability I do not mean that the game material would be more available, but that the game itself would be more availble to be played.

[HyrumOWC]

Yeah, the Mayfair edition is OOP for sure, but still copyrighted. The new one (at chillrpg.com) has been delayed so long I've pretty much written it off at this point.

I know it's been awhile, but I wouldn't give up just yet. :) We've got a Quickstart coming this October and the full game should be out by April of next year.

Hyrum.
OWC
www.chillrpg.com

[Snikle]

Hyrum, You should contact DA, they are doing a great job getting purblishers to allow them to convert game systems to FG Rulesets.

[Thore_Ironrock]

I know it's been awhile, but I wouldn't give up just yet. :) We've got a Quickstart coming this October and the full game should be out by April of next year.

I would love to talk to OWC about doing a Chill Ruleset. I think the "horror" game is needed for the FG community, and I'm a long time Chill fan myself since the Pacesetter days. Still have my old Chill dice too.

Wonder if we could get the FG dice to look like the old Chill/Pacesetter dice ...
;)

[HyrumOWC]

I would love to talk to OWC about doing a Chill Ruleset. I think the "horror" game is needed for the FG community, and I'm a long time Chill fan myself since the Pacesetter days. Still have my old Chill dice too.

Wonder if we could get the FG dice to look like the old Chill/Pacesetter dice ...
;)

Sounds like a plan to me. :)

Hyrum.
OWC

[Snikle]

Hey Thore, I get a 1% commision for helping broker a Ruleset? ;)

[Thore_Ironrock]

Hey Thore, I get a 1% commision for helping broker a Ruleset? ;)

Maybe I'll just have to contract you to do the ruleset Snikle ... if you think you can handle it that is. :D


Hyrum ... have someone from OWC email me if you want to get this started. ;)

[Snikle]

LOL, heck man, I dont even know (or own) that game system...I hate to admit it, but this is first time I have ever even heard of it!!!

[Thore_Ironrock]

LOL, heck man, I dont even know (or own) that game system...I hate to admit it, but this is first time I have ever even heard of it!!!

A skilled developer and experienced gamer would adapt and overcome.

Sort of like a coder-gamer-borg. ;)

[HyrumOWC]

Maybe I'll just have to contract you to do the ruleset Snikle ... if you think you can handle it that is. :D


Hyrum ... have someone from OWC email me if you want to get this started. ;)

That would be me. :)

The ruleset isn't officially published yet. We're in the final phase of playtesting, with the Quickstart releasing next month in October and the corebook next Spring.

Hyrum.

[Snikle]

....would adapt and overcome.

Heck, you forgot I am a soldier, "adapt and overcome" is practically my middle name (as is "make it happen with zero funds"). ;)

[Matchstick]

I would love to talk to OWC about doing a Chill Ruleset. I think the "horror" game is needed for the FG community, and I'm a long time Chill fan myself since the Pacesetter days. Still have my old Chill dice too.

Wonder if we could get the FG dice to look like the old Chill/Pacesetter dice ...
;)

I still have my original Chill boxed set, and some great memories of some really scary games. I'd love to see this ruleset converted!

I'm also hoping to see Bureau13 converted when it comes out.

:)

[aikam]

As a Chill Rpg fan, I decided to give it a try with fantasy grounds.

I moved the D100 rule to D20 (merely devided by 5 everything)
Kept the 45 wound box (just changed the way to calculate it)
The character sheet is done.
I have to think about the creation of NPCs.

To simulate Chill rolling dices you
Apply modifier
drop skill value
roll the dice

CM gets <roll> + <modifier+skill value>
with the + meaning against, the CM can easily translate into Failed/Critic/Good/Average/Bad
Version 2.0 should give the possibilty of changing this display.

I am preparing a module to test all that in play mode next month.
I let you know how it worked out.

PS : sorry for my poor english, I am more fluent in French (my first language)

[meathome]

I started work on my own take of a cthulhu ruleset. Heres a screenshot:

https://img265.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cthulhu7gu.jpg

skills and weapons are showed in windowlists and are draggable from the reference to the charsheet.
I changed the portraits, to square, with an art deco picture frame around em, and im using pics from the silent movie star pages for them. Some of the reference is already done (skills, occupations, spot rules, tables, weapons) some partially done (monsters).

[Snikle]

Wow! Looks great! Now if only we could get a game running!

[DarkStar]

It's looking very good! Though I'd be concerned with little space for skills - or is it how CoC works? I never played it, that system is on my "to do" list. Think you could run something at iCon?

[Oberoten]

Maybe add a scroll control if there isn't one allready? Has to be one of the most useful things so far. (And yes I *DO* need to add one of those to my Arm Set too.. )

[meathome]

All windowlists are scrollable by default. just point at it and use the mousewheel, but adding a scroller control would be no problem :D. Yes space for the skills is small, bat i wanted to have all information at one page atm only the skills on wich points are spent should be added, and tehres a table in the reference with the base values for all skills. Perhaps i move the skills to a seperate subwindow, so that all of them can be displayed at once.

[untamo]

I would be very interested in joining a CoC game if you ever manage to get one going with your ruleset.

[tdwyer11b]

Nice, with BRP, you now have the ability to play Elric!, Stormbringer maybe some Runequest.

[Foen]

I have been working on a CoC FGII ruleset (we already have a workable FG version) and have explored the licence issue with Chaosium. Their requirements are:

(1) Charge no money for playing the game

(2) documents need copyright and trademark notice on first page, viz

Call of Cthulhu (C)2007 by Chaosium Inc.; all rights reserved.
Call of Cthulhu (R) is the registered trademark of Chaosium Inc.

We are using the chat window to display the licence text (cannot figure out how to get it to appear on the ruleset selection window, a la d20) having edited chatmanager.lua.

The FGII version charsheet is very nearly done (nothing was common with FG, so we started from scratch!), but monsters, etc still to do.

Cheers

Foen

[VenomousFiligree]

I have been working on a CoC FGII ruleset (we already have a workable FG version) and have explored the licence issue with Chaosium. Their requirements are:

(1) Charge no money for playing the game

(2) documents need copyright and trademark notice on first page, viz

Call of Cthulhu (C)2007 by Chaosium Inc.; all rights reserved.
Call of Cthulhu (R) is the registered trademark of Chaosium Inc.

We are using the chat window to display the licence text (cannot figure out how to get it to appear on the ruleset selection window, a la d20) having edited chatmanager.lua.

The FGII version charsheet is very nearly done (nothing was common with FG, so we started from scratch!), but monsters, etc still to do.

Cheers

Foen

:D

Good work!

[Foen]

One thing was a bit tricky though: how to subtract one die roll from another. The damage 'bonus' is sometimes negative, but FGII doesn't allow a dicelist to have negative dice in it (ie. you cannot have 2d6-1d4).

Eventually got round it by creating custom dice (m6 and m4 for -d6 and -d4) and adding them (ie. using 2d6+1m4).

Where there's a will there's a way.

Foen

[untamo]

Please keep me informed when you complete it. If you need play testers let me know.

[Foen]

No problem, and thanks for the offer.

If anyone wants a peek at the work-in-progress, drop me a PM with your email address and I'll send you a link to the draft ruleset.

Cheers

Foen

[Foen]

I started work on my own take of a cthulhu ruleset. Heres a screenshot:

https://img265.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cthulhu7gu.jpg


Great work meathome! Makes my graphics look poxy by comparison.

Cheers

Foen

[draeven57]

I started work on my own take of a cthulhu ruleset. Heres a screenshot:

https://img265.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cthulhu7gu.jpg

skills and weapons are showed in windowlists and are draggable from the reference to the charsheet.
I changed the portraits, to square, with an art deco picture frame around em, and im using pics from the silent movie star pages for them. Some of the reference is already done (skills, occupations, spot rules, tables, weapons) some partially done (monsters).

Wow! That looks sweet! I am running a CoC Dark Ages game right now using Foen's draft ruleset. (Thanks Foen, by the way!). We are having a really good time with it.

I would like to take a look at yours too meathome. Drop me a PM if you are interested in sharing it.

[Foen]

The CoC ruleset for FGII is just about done, but with limited reference material (I'm less happy about copying Chaosium stuff for free distribution).

Some screenshots below...

Cheers

Stuart
(Foen)