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My first hands on experience with BRP.

Started by Darrin Kelley, January 20, 2024, 06:07:49 AM

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Darrin Kelley

I bought the newest version of Basic Roleplaying yesterday. A pretty venerable game system with a lot of history.

And through my insomniac mind, I managed to read the whole book. And I found the experience fantastic. Everything was so well organized. It taught me the system to a semi-competant level just with the first read-through.

This just doesn't happen commonly for me. So it was like a case of whiplash when I realized it.

I'm a BRP convert now. I finally found a system I really click with. After a long and exhaustive search.
 

Llew ap Hywel

Welcome to the BRP world. Mythras is my flavour of choice but you're starting on a solid choice.
Talk gaming or talk to someone else.

Brad

Newest meaning the one that came out last year? I have the yellow one and a couple older versions, is there any compelling reason to get the new book? What's different?
It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.

Llew ap Hywel

Quote from: Brad on January 20, 2024, 08:51:17 AM
Newest meaning the one that came out last year? I have the yellow one and a couple older versions, is there any compelling reason to get the new book? What's different?

This might help

https://www.chaosium.com/blogbasic-roleplaying-universal-game-engine7-changes-in-the-new-edition/
Talk gaming or talk to someone else.

Jam The MF

The new BRP lost me, by advertising the introduction of gender neutral pronouns throughout.  I'd rather "they" not even mention it.

However; I can appreciate the happiness, of someone finally finding a game "they" love.  Enjoy it, and drive it like you stole it.  Some people search and search, trying to find a ruleset "they" can buy into 100%.  Your search is finally over.  It's a good day.
Let the Dice, Decide the Outcome.  Accept the Results.

Brad

5. Gender-neutral pronouns

As part of our ongoing mission to make our games as inclusive as possible, all instances of "he or she" from previous editions of BRP have been updated to "they."


Imagine going to all this trouble when singular gender neutral has always existed in modern English as "he".
It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.

I

Glad you had a good experience with BRP.  I've always loved it myself.

Llew ap Hywel

Quote from: Jam The MF on January 20, 2024, 01:33:35 PM
The new BRP lost me, by advertising the introduction of gender neutral pronouns throughout.  I'd rather "they" not even mention it.

However; I can appreciate the happiness, of someone finally finding a game "they" love.  Enjoy it, and drive it like you stole it.  Some people search and search, trying to find a ruleset "they" can buy into 100%.  Your search is finally over.  It's a good day.

Your loss, it doesn't affect the game in any way.
Talk gaming or talk to someone else.

pawsplay

Quote from: Brad on January 20, 2024, 02:50:31 PM
5. Gender-neutral pronouns

As part of our ongoing mission to make our games as inclusive as possible, all instances of "he or she" from previous editions of BRP have been updated to "they."


Imagine going to all this trouble when singular gender neutral has always existed in modern English as "he".

Well, singular neutral "they" has also been around for hundreds of years.

Aglondir

Quote from: Darrin Kelley on January 20, 2024, 06:07:49 AM
I bought the newest version of Basic Roleplaying yesterday. A pretty venerable game system with a lot of history.

And through my insomniac mind, I managed to read the whole book. And I found the experience fantastic. Everything was so well organized. It taught me the system to a semi-competant level just with the first read-through.

This just doesn't happen commonly for me. So it was like a case of whiplash when I realized it.

I'm a BRP convert now. I finally found a system I really click with. After a long and exhaustive search.

Darrin,

Glad you found a system you like.
How does defense (dodging?) in BRP work?

JeremyR

I found BRP okay in CoC for one shots, but other than that I dislike it.

First combat is basically "I hit you", "No you didn't"  (rolling attack, then the defender rolling defense)

Secondly, character improvement is very slow

Thirdly, hard to gauge the toughness of characters/monsters. That is probably a case of needing to play more

Early versions also didn't have any sort of skill difficulty. So if you were a surgeon with a skill of 60%, you're going to kill 40% of your patients.

Oddly, I found TSR's Buck Rogers to be one of the best d100% games. It basically uses D&D combat but with d100% skills using difficulty levels that multiple or divide the base skill. Which of course is too complex for modern gamers, since even subtraction is hard, but worked well.

Llew ap Hywel

Quote from: Aglondir on January 21, 2024, 01:27:03 AM
Quote from: Darrin Kelley on January 20, 2024, 06:07:49 AM
I bought the newest version of Basic Roleplaying yesterday. A pretty venerable game system with a lot of history.

And through my insomniac mind, I managed to read the whole book. And I found the experience fantastic. Everything was so well organized. It taught me the system to a semi-competant level just with the first read-through.

This just doesn't happen commonly for me. So it was like a case of whiplash when I realized it.

I'm a BRP convert now. I finally found a system I really click with. After a long and exhaustive search.

Darrin,

Glad you found a system you like.
How does defense (dodging?) in BRP work?

You roll the dodge skill as a reaction with each successive attempt getting harder.
Talk gaming or talk to someone else.

Brad

Quote from: pawsplay on January 20, 2024, 09:04:59 PM
Quote from: Brad on January 20, 2024, 02:50:31 PM
5. Gender-neutral pronouns

As part of our ongoing mission to make our games as inclusive as possible, all instances of "he or she" from previous editions of BRP have been updated to "they."


Imagine going to all this trouble when singular gender neutral has always existed in modern English as "he".

Well, singular neutral "they" has also been around for hundreds of years.

And it's always been grammatically incorrect until a bunch of narcissistic faggots decided to start using it because they had severe mental illness.


ANYWAY, waffling on purchasing this book. The sample layout I've seen is pretty good but I don't know if the changes warrant replacing the yellow BRP. Various reviews seems to either hate it or love it; even some of the BRP adherents question some of the changes. I do know the new CoC and Mythras seem to have fragmented support for CoC and Runequest, wondering if this is a similar case.
It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.

finarvyn

Quote from: Darrin Kelley on January 20, 2024, 06:07:49 AM
I bought the newest version of Basic Roleplaying yesterday. A pretty venerable game system with a lot of history.

And through my insomniac mind, I managed to read the whole book. And I found the experience fantastic. Everything was so well organized. It taught me the system to a semi-competant level just with the first read-through.

This just doesn't happen commonly for me. So it was like a case of whiplash when I realized it.

I'm a BRP convert now. I finally found a system I really click with. After a long and exhaustive search.
You might also check out Free League's new Dragonbane RPG.

A bit of history (and hopefully I will get it all right off of the top of my head.) In 1981 a group in Sweden got the rights to take BRP and "Magic World" and combine them into a game called Drakar och Demoner, which I understand to mean "Dragons and Demons." DoD went through around 8 editions, all in Swedish, and with various adjustments along the way. Some editions use the d%, others use d20, but I think that all are roll-low with the skill defining the chance for success.

A year or so ago Free League bought the rights to the game, renamed it Dragonbane and released it as a boxed set, with a hardback rulebook and bestiary book both still in preorder (but you can get the PDFs right away if you buy). The boxed set has some really quality components, including a softbound rulebook, adventure book, five pregens, dice, map of the campaign area. The adventure book has around a dozen adventures in a "sandbox" style, where you have one adventure to launch the campaign, ten sandbox places to go around the map, then a "tie it up" adventure at the end.

It's been years since I played BRP, but I think Dragonbane is mostly BRP with a few things modernized a bit. (Used the d20 instead of d%, makes use of advantage/disadvantage, initiative card rules, and so on.)

There is a free PDF that you can download if you want to check it out.
https://freeleaguepublishing.com/shop/dragonbane/free-quickstart-pdf/
https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/409397/Dragonbane-Quickstart
Marv / Finarvyn
Kingmaker of Amber
I'm pretty much responsible for the S&W WB rules.
Amber Diceless Player since 1993
OD&D Player since 1975

King Tyranno

Quote from: Llew ap Hywel on January 20, 2024, 04:40:51 PM
Quote from: Jam The MF on January 20, 2024, 01:33:35 PM
The new BRP lost me, by advertising the introduction of gender neutral pronouns throughout.  I'd rather "they" not even mention it.

However; I can appreciate the happiness, of someone finally finding a game "they" love.  Enjoy it, and drive it like you stole it.  Some people search and search, trying to find a ruleset "they" can buy into 100%.  Your search is finally over.  It's a good day.

Your loss, it doesn't affect the game in any way.

The thing is, it's never just a change in language. The change in language is but one of the vectors by which cancel pigs can change a game to their liking. There's always way more than just a change in pronouns. If not now, then in the future. Every single time. And I'm sick of people going "Well it's not happening right now, calm down" when it inevitably will. Say goodbye to manly heroes and say hello to Battle-Wheelchairs and ball-room dancing mechanics. Combat is heckin gross so less rules for that. It just gets in the way of the heckin valid aimless wandering and le epic cinematic moments.