Any BRP love out there??

[Sigurd]

Chaosium seems to be promoting thier d100 Basic Roleplaying system. This is the basis for their non D20 Cthulhu and Runequest games.

Are there any people who have used some of the recent products that can give me their impressions?

Any ruleset work going on.


My interest is peeked by the website (https://basicroleplaying.com/) which seems to have collected a lot of players from the various non D20 games. The site terms of use put all posts into the Creative Commons License. I'm curious if this will be a creative source.

Sigurd

[Oberoten]

BRP is a simple but good system. Skillbased instead of levels which means that the tradesman will be one heck of a trader but useless in a fight. And that there is no need to whack gobbos to learn languages.

Working on a percentile base also means that it is pretty simple to wing difficulties and modifiers. It tends to become somewhat deadly though since there is no buffer of mystic extra hitpoints due to having bashed x^2 gobbos. :)

If there is any major critique to the system there is basically that it has way too few products. But for a good example on how it works I'd recommend Elric as well. Or the Swedish Drakar & Demoner.

[Master]

I picked up the latest cthulhu (released last November) that uses the newest BRP 6.0 system. I have read through the book and I have some mixed feelings about the system. First the system is a RP system and not a combat system. This has it's pluses and minuses. Also the system uses a generic movement modifier and doesnt tell you exact distances for movement while it does give exact distances for projectiles. Also, as for how long a round is. The book tells you that each player should have enough time to do one or two interesting things. There is no exact limit. While this is very flexible (which is the whole premise behind the system) it can cause problems and will cause them if you are not careful.

The book is also not put together very well. You have important rules spread all through the book instead of in their central rule chapter. It also doesnt explain things very well. If I was new to the system I would be completely lost. I hope their new BRP 6.0 stand alone book is better made.

If I had to rate the system I would give it a 4 out of 5 while I rate dnd 3.x as 4.5 out of 5.

You can do a LOT with the system. Even the combat can be as complex as you want or as simple as you want. You just need to know how to modify the rules to your needs.

[Oberoten]

It should be noted that Cthulhu has always used a simplified version of the system. Elric/Stormbringer uses a more combat oriented version.

[Master]

When does the BRP 6.0 stand alone rule book come out?

[Sigurd]

When does the BRP 6.0 stand alone rule book come out?
Still in the air but probably soon.

I think its variously: Finished, at the printers! or just being tweaked.... depends on your source

[Foen]

As regards ruleset activity, I was working on a BRP6 Cthulhu ruleset but have shelved it for the time being (there is a simple one available for FG1 if anyone is interested, but the FGII stuff isn't available).

Separately (and very much as a hobby/sideline), I'm developing the Mongoose RuneQuest OGL material into a free ruleset. The OGL material is published on www.basicroleplaying.com as a single PDF, and is fairly rich in content (system, companion and monsters).

Finally, I think the stand-alone BRP books are now released. Leastways, Chaosium have taken my money for the books (though the order has yet to be dispatched).

Cheers

Stuart

PS. RuneQuest isn't Chaosium, nor is it technically BRP. Mongoose re-wrote the core rules to get around copyright issues, and licenced the RQ trademark from Issaries (Greg Stafford). The game looks and feels just like BRP, but uses different words. Apparently you can copyright words, but not gaming systems/concepts. Stuart

[Sigurd]

PS. RuneQuest isn't Chaosium, nor is it technically BRP. Mongoose re-wrote the core rules to get around copyright issues, and licenced the RQ trademark from Issaries (Greg Stafford). The game looks and feels just like BRP, but uses different words. Apparently you can copyright words, but not gaming systems/concepts. Stuart
Sort of gives me a sour taste. I like Chaosium and AH. I imagine they got better legal advice than I can afford :)

My understanding is that in US Law copyright protection expressly does not extend to game mechanics. Artwork and original concepts.... Thats what I read on the internet somewhere ... -I am not a a lawyer- . I don't think much of this has been tested.

btw... I think that is one of the chief benefits of licenses like D20. The license establishes the business relationship in terms favourable to the licensor. Not the untested, possibly damaging, court system.

Anyway, Send me a PM when you get the product if you have an opinion to share :).

[Waldo Pepper]

If you're interested in an alternative to BRP, you should check out the soon to be released Trail of Cthulhu by Ken Hite. It uses the Gumshoe RPG system which is a very solid, streamlined system designed by Robin Laws especially for investigative adventures. I have The Esoterrorists which is the first setting released using the rules and it's terrific. Ken is an old hat at the Cthulhu mythos and the game is officially licensed by Chaosium so I'll bet it's going to be awesome.

There also should be no problem playing it on FG using just the default ruleset - it uses very simplified mechanics which don't require any special tables, dice, cards, etc.

[brucehum]

A BPR system ruleset for FGII would be very interesting!

[Foen]

Sort of gives me a sour taste. I like Chaosium and AH.

Yeah, me too, but RuneQuest is a minefield of competing rights. It seems the previous position was an impasse with no-one winning and everyone losing, and this way (as OGL) no-one is claiming IP/royalties and the game is available once more.

The main thrust of my ruleset is a walkthrough of how to do your own. The by-product is a (hopefully) useable RuneQuest product and no legal guys jumping down anyone's neck.

BTW, is there anywhere on the FG forums to publish such a walk-through? It will be very big and rolled out over many months.

Stuart

[Oberoten]

Kenshin's site perhaps? Unless the Dev's finally give us a place to upload files and scriptlets. :)

[Wired]

I've never actually played using BRP (I'm pretty new at roleplaying, was really interested in it when I was a kid but never got around to playing any, then about a year ago I got the chance to join a group using a local (Swedish) system then called "In the Dark", which is called "Bortom" nowadays. It was great but the GM moved away so that was that)...

But anyway, I've always been really interested in Call of Cthulhu so I picked up the 6th edition rulebook and read through it and I liked what I saw. Since I live in such a small and shitty place it's unlikely I'll get to play it any time soon, which is why I'm asking the question below (keep reading, you'll get there)

Is there some reason (that I'm missing) why Chaosium don't create and release a ruleset for FG... I mean that would have to be a good idea, right? From a business standpoint I mean?

[Griogre]

My opinion is many RPG companies don't understand VTT applications and are very nervous or skeptical about having digital data of their intellectual property floating around. WotC’s push into this field will probably make other companies more interested in doing this type of thing – assuming WotC doesn’t shoot themselves in the foot with DDI.

[Foen]

A number of companies have licensed their games for FG (there are official rulesets for C&C, IH, AE etc), more are in the pipeline (for example Rolemaster) so I shouldn't be surprised to see the trend continue.

If CoC is released, you'll probably hear about it on these forums first!

Stuart

[Oberoten]

I've never actually played using BRP (I'm pretty new at roleplaying, was really interested in it when I was a kid but never got around to playing any, then about a year ago I got the chance to join a group using a local (Swedish) system then called "In the Dark", which is called "Bortom" nowadays. It was great but the GM moved away so that was that)...

But anyway, I've always been really interested in Call of Cthulhu so I picked up the 6th edition rulebook and read through it and I liked what I saw. Since I live in such a small and shitty place it's unlikely I'll get to play it any time soon, which is why I'm asking the question below (keep reading, you'll get there)

Is there some reason (that I'm missing) why Chaosium don't create and release a ruleset for FG... I mean that would have to be a good idea, right? From a business standpoint I mean?


....

Dude? We are in the same town. And I am kinda looking for new players...
Am I correct in assuming you played with Victor Nyberg? VERY good player.

Drop me a PM.

- Adam