Basic Roleplaying Central

INDEX: Coming Supplements: Rome, Fractured Hopes, Supernatural Western, BRP Adventure Monograph,  DeadWorld, Interplanetary, Mythic Iceland, The Covenant of Justice,  Fantastical Baroque, Desolation's Edge,  Sword & Spell, The Green, Gravequest, The God Machine.  Published supplements: Outpost 19, Ashes, to Ashes, Berlin '61, Basic Roleplaying. 

The Covenant of Justice is a grim and gritty superhero setting, where the heroes of the Covenent of Justice combat unknown forces which lurk in the darkness. The secret of these dark forces, about which man was not meant to know, is kept from the public in fear of the widespread panic it could cause. A heroic legacy has been maintained of costumed adventurers stretching back across more than a century, culminating in arguably the greatest age of heroes. It is ironic that at the time of the greatest assemblage of heroes there is the greatest need for their presence...

The default power level is superhuman, which limits around Spider-man level. This monograph will include several new powers in addition to the setting-specific material. The author is Leon Mallett from the forum.

To be submitted to Chaosium by September 2009. Playtesters wanted.

The God Machine is a dark fantasy setting in which men and women live in a heavily industrialised feudal world, where steam-powered machines, gas-lit streets, and sorcery and science live side by side. Pollution, belched out by these wondrous machines, has destroyed the natural world, leaving it dead, barren: a dystopia, a world where men cling onto a bleak existence by the tips of their fingers. Deep in the city of Fanghast, once the jewel in the crown of the mighty Assaldaar empire, religious fanatics of a cult known as the The God Machine build new machines to repair the damaged world. The real terror is, that unwittingly, the very machines they build do more harm, and day by day, the world dies a little more.

The monograph will feature a  new magic system, a detailed overview of the city of Fanghast and it's dangerous Undercity, details of the society in general and the criminal underworld, information about The God Machine cult and their worship, a quick overview of the outside world surrounding the city, the infernal machines and wondrous technologies of this medieval Industralised world, and an introductory scenario! The author is Nathan Baron, aka Wolverine from the forum. It will be a game of Science and Sorcery set in a world of perilous adventure.

In the works. Currently no ETA.

Mythic Iceland is a fantasy earth Vikings setting which will be based on the Icelandic Sagas, the Eddas, and the fairy tales of Iceland. The magical and mythical aspects from the Eddas and the Sagas will be incorporated into the setting, and much attention will be given to the elves, using the legends of the huldufólk. The author is Pedro Ziviani, a historian living on Iceland. The playtesting phase have just started, and most of the setting material have been written. Mythic Iceland will also have a chapter with Mythos information, so that the book can also be used as a setting for Cthulhu Dark Ages.

To be submitted to Chaosium by August -09.

Gravequest is a setting where the player characters are teens or young adults who have joined a secret scavenger game society named Gravequest, which sole purpose is to investigate paranormal events and places. This highly secret rewards its participants with cash, rank within the organization, learning magic and the so-called "secrets of the Grave". The setting is based on investigation of everything from the supernatural and aliens, to mundane crimes. What secrets the player characters discover is up to the GM, from ancient vampire cults to charlatans out to defraud and scam others! The author is Christopher House from the forum, and the monograph is estimated to be approximately 200 pages long.

Int the works. Currently no ETA. Playtesters wanted.

The trees and swamps of the Green provide cover and sustenance to a broad array of life. The canopy is a world of its own with thousands of species: insects, snakes, lizards, birds and mammals, both intelligent and bestial, adapted to their verdant environment. Many of these creatures, like the trees themselves, have grown to enormous size. The Branches are huge and easy to walk on.. at least to a point. Much of the magic in the Green is based upon manipulating and influencing the ubiquitous wood and growing things. Beneath this green world is the dark, swampy root world where other less wholesome critters dwell. The Green will be a setting in its own right, but will be designed so that it can be placed of the edge of any homebrew or published setting, to give a kind of change of pace and setting for existing campaigns. The author is Scott Heiney, aka Puck from the forum.

In the works. Currently no ETA. Playtesters wanted.

Desolation's Edge is a post-acopalyptic setting where a massive conventional conflict known as the Great Conflict raged across the world for just over a century. Twenty years ago, a mysterious plague began to devastate large segments of the population. While many victims of the Plague died outright, some rise up and wander about before dying, becoming a vector of the Plague itself. Another large segment of Plague victims survived but become maniacs who roam in packs. Among the 'healthy' survivors a small number emerged with superior psychic abilities. These have become known as the Kin.

While many urban areas were abandoned during the height of the Plague, they have recently become re-populated as the Great Conflict itself has ground to a halt and the plague dies down (though not altogether). War stragglers, some from the native population, some from the 'enemy' left behind, provide raw potential for experienced starting PCs and NPCs as well as a treasure trove of background material. The game will feature a system for Psychic Powers  is unique to the Desolation Edge setting. The author is Publius from the forum.

ETA postponed.

Fantastical Baroque (new title pending) is set in a fantasy world plunged deep into the abyss of a 1790s enlightenment-type revolution, where order is collapsing, science is outpacing itself, religion is obsolescent and the common man is supersceded by burgeoning industry. It is a world of paranoia, muskets and guilliotines sitting uncomfortably alongside ghosts, wyverns and alchemical magicks. The setting can be described as Sleepy Hollow meets Brotherhood of the Wolf during the French Revolution; a world is teetering on the edge between a new rational order and plunging into chaos. Delusion, deception and quick wits are tools of survival more powerful than any rapier or flintlock.

The monograph will detail this fantasy world, new skills, several new occupations, a system for martial arts (armed and unarmed), a new magic system and other assortments, including a few ideas for bringing mass-combat (naval and land) to the table. The monograph will be written by Anthony Warren, aka mr_mitts from the forum. 

ETA postponed.

Interplanetary, is an adventure sourcebook for roleplaying games in the style of the planetary adventure or planetary romance genre. The sourcebook will presents a sample campaign and exploration of the planets in our solar system in a manner appropriate to the genre. The defaul earth setting is set around 1920. The author is none other than BRP's Jason Durall!

The sourcebook will include character generation (including alien characters), artifacts and equipment (including various spacecrafts), sci-fi spot rules, an alternate description of out solar system and it's inhabitants, and a sample planetary adventure campaign.

To be submitted to Chaosium around March -09.

Chaosium have announced a great BRP Adventure Contest, where the winning entries will be published as part of a BRP Adventure Monograph. The winning authors will receive two copies of the monograph, a Chaosium T-shirt, and a grand mystery prize!

Each entry must be an original BRP adventure between 5,000 - 7,000 words.

Adventures submitted to Chaosium in August -08.

Fractured Hopes is a new space fantasy setting where the world humanity lived on was shattered into thousands of large chunks of rock, during a war between a machine race and bio-tech aliens. Some parts of the god from the original world still inhabit the largest chunks of rocks, and in most places provide the human inhabitants with what they need to survive. Magic users and sorcerors intercede with this spirit on behalf of the people, and are essential crew on any spacecraft. The author is Charles Green from the forum.

The design goal for Fractured Hopes is to develop an exciting setting in which nearly every option available in the Basic book is not only available, but make logical sense. It should support a wide variety of player concepts. Players will have access to a ship to travel between fragments, looking for loot, helping refugees and battling killer robots.

Submitted to Chaosium in May -08.

Seraphim Guard will utilize the first BRP license Chaosium has given out for their upcoming DeadWorld RPG. The setting is based upon Gary Reed's DeadWorld comic. A supernatural plague have been unleased upon the world, and the dead returns to walk the earth! The zombies are soldiers for those who have crossed the Gateway, and have intelligent leader zombies. For humans, it's quite the struggle just to stay alive.

To be released in March -09 at the Wizards World 2009.

Outpost 19 is a sci-fi scenario where the characters are a team of trouble shooters sent to deal with a medical emergency at a multi-corps research site on a recently opened colony world. In the setting, humanity lost earth to an out break of nanotechnology over a millennia ago and has split in to at least three distinct and divergent cultures, which currently coexisting in an uneasy peace whilst aliens are intruding in to the human sphere.

The adventure has a brief opening in a trade station inside an asteroid, before jumping to a frontier world only recently colonised, where technology is much more primitive. It's a hot, humid jungle planet environment, with filter masks recommended in the low lands where the Outpost is sited. Nick Middleton from the forum is the author of this sci-fi monograph.

Released as a PDF December 2008. Dead tree version to follow.

Ashes, to Ashes, is a dark fantasy setting where wizards deliberately broke the world around a century Ago. The remnants of a mighty, high fantasy civilization litter the world, but civilization is no longer great. It's now a world of poverty, low magic and scarce resources, where people struggle to survive.  This setting casts the players as mavericks in a fantasy world that is losing a war it does not even know that it is fighting. The author is Jeff Moeller, aka neorxnawang from the forum.

Ashes, to Ashes, is a role-playing-heavy, philosophy-heavy, conflict-heavy type of game that would be best enjoyed by serious-minded folk. Ashes, to Ashes must, if run correctly, continually force the players to face moral dilemmas. Two introductory scenarios have been included in this 180 page monograph.

Released as a PDF June 2008. Dead tree version to follow.

Berlin '61 is an espionage horror setting for Basic Roleplaying. Set during the heart of the cold war, this espionage horror setting explores the darker side of post war europe, where magic and demons are worshipped by cults and sorcerers, and good men and women draw the line between good and evil. The author is Christopher Barnhart, aka PK Games from the forum. 

There will be a section for spy games, super hero games and horror games, but the main focus overall will be horror.

Released in January 2009. (PDF released July 2008).

Basic Roleplaying is a generic D100 roleplaying games system, capable of handling any setting from fantasy to science fiction. The new core rulebook is an revised edition of the core Chaosium RPG system. It is highly intuitive and therefor also quite easy to learn.

Basic Roleplaying tracks its origin to the rules created by Steve Perrin for RuneQuest - a fantasy roleplaying game published by Chaosium in 1978. In 1981, Chaosium released a 16 page rules booklet called Basic Role-Playing, which contained a generic trim-downed version of the RuneQuest rules. The Basic Role-Playing booklet was used as a basis for most of the games released by Chaosium, including Stormbringer, Call of Cthulhu, Ringworld, Elfquest and many more. Finally, the greatest roleplaying game systems of all times has been resurrected!
 
Released in June 2008.