Lately I have been thinking how great it is to be a fan of the BRP system nowadays. BRP was in its heyday a very loved and successful system, games like RuneQuest, Call of Cthulhu or Stormbringer come to the mind.

Unfortunately it went through difficult times, due to several circumstances, there was a time when Call of Cthulhu was the only in print BRP game, and I was convinced I would never see RuneQuest in print again.

This is why I'm so surprised at the BRP Renaissance*, today we have the BRP golden book, Mongoose RuneQuest 2, Openquest (I don't have it but heard good things about it), and a new edition of Aquelarre (the system is a BRP rip off) has just been released. And not only the corebooks, it seems they are getting some high quality support, take a look at BRP Rome, Crusaders of the Amber Coast, MRQ Vikings, MRQ Elric, etc.

What do you think? Is there a BRP Renaissance?

*= I borrowed the name of this post from a post in Akrasia's blog. Akrasia, I hope you don't mind!

You know, just one mention that BRP is short for "Basic Role Playing" would be cool.

Yes, I think so. A very interesting element is the support/solicitation by the various rules-publishers for original setting books. Mongoose had done a few of these for their first RQ attempt (e.g. they had a Pirates and a Japan book) but I don't think they generated much interest. The new round, which seems to come largely from 3rd-party initiatives (even if they end up being published by Mongoose or Chaosium) seems more inspired.

Not all of the offerings grab me. I don't get the point of Wraith Recon, and Deus Vult seems like a waste of a good title. Clockwork & Chivalry strikes me as a clumsy mashup. But in addition to the ones you mentioned, Chronicles of Future Earth and Celestial Empire (semi-historical China) at least have gotten my attention. There's also the forthcoming Age of Treason for MRQ.

Not sure what to make of the fragmentation of the core rules across 2-3 companies. It seems it can have both positive and negative effects. But the overall effect is a little like what GURPS promised, but with a set of mechanics that I think may be a bit more accessible, and--I suspect--greater room for customization so that the resulting books have more individualized flavor instead of seeming like reskinned versions of a generic rules set. The downside of this, though, is that there's no "central repository" of major rules options.

Quote from: Doom;452311You know, just one mention that BRP is short for "Basic Role Playing" would be cool.

D&D is short for "Dungeons and Dragons".

Claudius>

Yeah, there is. I don't think there's any one cause that you can thank, but it's a lot of little things:

The OSR and the coverage RQ products get from them;

A bunch of different products in different genres being widely available and in print;

The cleaned up layout of the new products compared to older editions (RQ3 is a great game, but it's got a very cramped and dense layout);

Some great new innovations (the big bonus rule in OQ, combat maneuvers in MRQ2, versions without a resistance table);

Universal resolution mechanics now being considered normal and even ideal;

And the Mongoose RQ SRD, which means you can published easily compatible products.

There's probably a couple of other factors that I'm missing. It's kind of a perfect storm for BRP.

If you start calling it a Renaissance soon people on this site will say that BRP fandom is a sect where you're either "in" or "out", and you're a hypocrite and a liar for pointing out it is a diverse crowd with a lot of variety in styles in its player base. So I'd just dump the term altogether.

Is there a renewed interest in the system, its worlds and variants, and more exploration into the things it can do for different people out there? Sure. It's totally awesome. It's really a classic of role-playing, and deservedly so.

Quote from: Elliot Wilen;452314Chronicles of Future Earth

I've got a copy of this one in my "to be reviewed" stack, for what it's worth.

The Hardback edition of the Brp rules has also just been released in the past couple of week i believe which is pretty cool.

I may have to give chronicles of future earth a read along with celestial empire just as soon as i can find copies.

I just wish they'd call it BuRPs.

I don't know. It's great that all this stuff is coming out. But it doesn't surprise me. It's a great, great game. A great game getting some recognition and support shouldn't be too surprising.

Yep, it an exciting time for us BRP fans.
My list of 'must get that' stuff for BRP went from a handful of CoC monographs to a big list of cool new settings and variants... with more on the way.

Looks like the perfect opportunity to ask around for some input.

What are the best monographs? Toolkits, settings, adventures, whatever, you name it.

I picked up the BRP Rome book the other day at my FLGS. It is awesome sauce.

I've never even run BRP. The book is just great.

Quote from: The Butcher;452362Looks like the perfect opportunity to ask around for some input.

What are the best monographs? Toolkits, settings, adventures, whatever, you name it.

Holy shit! I want to ask too. Deserves its own thread, amigo!

I really should look at some of the BRP-based SRDs.

The system isn't terribly far from what I was trying to do with my original game, and it would save me a lot of development time to just scrap it and go with BRP if I like it enough.

Done.

Quote from: Pseudoephedrine;452315D&D is short for "Dungeons and Dragons".

.

Yes, IHOTO.