Ive been using CoC/BRP for several years for Sci Fi games & I was looking into getting the newish RQ2 rules.
I was wondering how easy would it be to convert the RQ2 magic systems to "Psi" and the combat manoeuvres to be appropriate to Sci Fi games?
Quote from: AikiGhost;447785Ive been using CoC/BRP for several years for Sci Fi games & I was looking into getting the newish RQ2 rules.
I was wondering how easy would it be to convert the RQ2 magic systems to "Psi" and the combat manoeuvres to be appropriate to Sci Fi games?
Not using it yet but have capsule notes for running it in B5. It doesn't look particularly difficult, primarily picking a decent common skills list.
I'm tempted to use General Hit Points as a default for B5 but hit locations would work well in something like Firefly where's there's a reasonable amount of fisticuffs and duelling. It's not immediately obvious but hit locations tend to be more cinematic as they allow a greater distribution of damage.
CMs* for guns and PPGs in this case also need working through along with things like burst fire. With hit locations, burst fire becomes a drag to work through.
Psi could easily be common magic reskinned. Most common magic is self only so can be explained through mind over matter while things like Befuddle and Disruption are classic psi effects. The maximum magnitude is based on INT while the effect is powered by POW so you have something pretty Psi-like straight out of the book.
If you have the BRP gold book you can use that for the tech and RQII for the game engine and you're probably good to go with an evening's work.
*Impale both does and doesn't make sense for guns. You would probably removed the skill penalty. I would consider using a gun-only CM that does an extra die of damage to represent the increased likelihood of hitting something vital.
I ran a short lived modern/supernatural game that failed due to my lack of experience in gm'ing the genre. The rules worked just fine with a few minor imports from the BRP book for guns.
To handle burst fire in the MRQ2 hit location system, I'd resolve number of hits from the burst/autofire however you plan to do it (probably the same way you resolve cool stuff like impales) then just roll one hit location for the first hit, then add 1 to that number for every subsequent hit. Most burst/autofire weapons tend to pull the same way, and due to muzzle climb they always wind up trending upwards, which works out pretty good with the hit location chart (head at 20, legs from 1... in other words ascending). Sure, every once in a while you'll get an odd circumstance where you hit the right arm then the left arm... but FBI studies confirm that people tend to keep their arms across their bodies in gunfights...so not so odd in real life.
Simple and fast.
I ran a one-off Culture game using a tweaked version of the rules for Loz and the guys last month. They all played ROU's and their Avatars.
Of course I had to abstract a fair amount when the knife missiles and AM warheads started flying, but the core mechanics worked okay.
The ships, err, players seemed to enjoy themselves anyway. Temporary secondment to Special Circumstances and causing a Peta-death extinction event, by destroying an Excession colonised by paranoid Idirans on a retributive war footing. What more could a Psychopath class warship ask for...
Not really "sci-fi", but I've toyed with the idea of retooling the MRQII ruleset for a cinematic spy thriller game a la the Bourne movie trilogy, or Palladium's good old Ninjas & Superspies, using Combat Styles and Combat Maneuvers as the basis for a martial arts system.
On a similar vein, I suspect MRQII would be a great system for Star Wars. Maybe you could even use the Cult system to model different factions of Force users (Jedi, Sith, the odd isolated sects which pops up in the EU, etc.)
Not to mention, of course, my idle thoughts on a gonzo post-apocalyptic science-fantasy MRQII campaign, but I'm waiting to see how MRQII Hawkmoon turns out.
Quote from: Spike;447848I ran a short lived modern/supernatural game that failed due to my lack of experience in gm'ing the genre. The rules worked just fine with a few minor imports from the BRP book for guns.
To handle burst fire in the MRQ2 hit location system, I'd resolve number of hits from the burst/autofire however you plan to do it (probably the same way you resolve cool stuff like impales) then just roll one hit location for the first hit, then add 1 to that number for every subsequent hit. Most burst/autofire weapons tend to pull the same way, and due to muzzle climb they always wind up trending upwards, which works out pretty good with the hit location chart (head at 20, legs from 1... in other words ascending). Sure, every once in a while you'll get an odd circumstance where you hit the right arm then the left arm... but FBI studies confirm that people tend to keep their arms across their bodies in gunfights...so not so odd in real life.
Simple and fast.
Looks neat. One obvious issue is Choose Location. E.g. chest is 10-12 on a d20. If I choose chest and hit with say 3 bullets then it makes a difference as to where I start counting from. You could gloss it by saying that if you pick choose location then all bullets in the burst hit the same location. Which would be ... messy.
Quote from: deleriad;447865Looks neat. One obvious issue is Choose Location. E.g. chest is 10-12 on a d20. If I choose chest and hit with say 3 bullets then it makes a difference as to where I start counting from. You could gloss it by saying that if you pick choose location then all bullets in the burst hit the same location. Which would be ... messy.
It would make Choose Location a fantastic CM though. I'd be cool with it.
IMHO, the only real pain in the ass for converting MRQII to a sci-fi / modern day setting would be the one-time effort required in coming up with new careers and backgrounds. Maybe gear as well. Everything else is just tweaks.
Quote from: deleriad;447865Looks neat. One obvious issue is Choose Location. E.g. chest is 10-12 on a d20. If I choose chest and hit with say 3 bullets then it makes a difference as to where I start counting from. You could gloss it by saying that if you pick choose location then all bullets in the burst hit the same location. Which would be ... messy.
multiple hits in one location or moving damage based on drift are both features. Autofire is messy and should be avoided with extreme prejudice.
BRP has never struck me as a specifically good kind of game for sci-fi, but maybe that's just because no one has ever done good sci-fi with it yet.
RPGPundit
Quote from: RPGPundit;448068BRP has never struck me as a specifically good kind of game for sci-fi, but maybe that's just because no one has ever done good sci-fi with it yet.
RPGPundit
Agreed. There are no really good published Sci Fi settings for BRP, but its such a good system for gritty games that Ive been using it (Well CoC originally) for at least 15 years for things like Cyberpunk, Fading Suns and a few "Event Horizon" style deep space horror games. Hopefully eventually somebody will do a "Traveller Imperium" equivalent for BRP.
Quote from: AikiGhost;448089Agreed. There are no really good published Sci Fi settings for BRP, but its such a good system for gritty games that Ive been using it (Well CoC originally) for at least 15 years for things like Cyberpunk, Fading Suns and a few "Event Horizon" style deep space horror games. Hopefully eventually somebody will do a "Traveller Imperium" equivalent for BRP.
Ringworld was well regarded. I don't personally think the system was great but the tech and background was first class. You can also argue that Hawkmoon was a gonzo sci-fantasy setting and Cthulhu Rising seems to be popular. Pete Nash often states that the RQII combat system was tested using light sabre duels.
I can't say I've ever seen any vehicle/space ship system for BRP that both feels like BRP and is quick and easy to run. That said, I know Alephtar is working on a Mecha setting of some sort.
Really though I suspect you could take Traveller or GURPs tech stuff, add BRP game system and hey presto you have BRP sci-fi.
Quote from: AikiGhost;448089Agreed. There are no really good published Sci Fi settings for BRP, but its such a good system for gritty games that Ive been using it (Well CoC originally) for at least 15 years for things like Cyberpunk, Fading Suns and a few "Event Horizon" style deep space horror games. Hopefully eventually somebody will do a "Traveller Imperium" equivalent for BRP.
I've read somewhere that Future World, a booklet included in the old Worlds of Wonder boxed set, was pretty much Traveller by way of BRP, down to skills being determined by randomly rolled career backgrounds.
And of course, as others mentioned, there's Ringworld.
Anyway, I'd love to see an original hard SF setting using BRP. The system can be very gritty, and your PC's skills will make you or break you -- a lot like Traveller in this. Instead of doing yet another "Cthulhu in Space!" monograph, mayhap the Chaosium folks could consider a straight-up hard SF book.