Q&A's with the new BRP author version 2.0

[Jason Durall]

Originally Posted by Nightshade

One I forgot to ask on the last one: was the super powers set derived from the full blown one from the standalone Superworld, or the somewhat more primitive version in WoW?

The powers are based on the simpler set, but with some powers brought over from Superworld.

A more comprehensive and detailed treatment of superpowers would be found in a supers sourcebook, should Chaosium choose to publish one.

In related news, if anyone's interested in writing a supers sourcebook, please contact Chaosium.

[Atgxtg]

Originally Posted by Jason Durall

The powers are based on the simpler set, but with some powers brought over from Superworld.

A more comprehensive and detailed treatment of superpowers would be found in a supers sourcebook, should Chaosium choose to publish one.

In related news, if anyone's interested in writing a supers sourcebook, please contact Chaosium.

Thanks for the answer.

I'd be interesed in writing something for BRP one day. I'm just waiting to see the game and what's been tweaked.

Some more "Supers" related BRP questions:

WoW Superworld used a different Damage bonus forumula (+1d6 for each 10 points of STR OR SIZ over 14, not both). Just wondering, but how will that worl in BRP? If you use the normal Damage bonus, then Superstrong character won't be doing anywhere near the damage they did in Superworld capping off at +3 or 4D6 (yeah, hardly "wimpy") if they put all their Hero Points into STR.

Has the cost for stats been tweaked (like sat 2-1 for STR), has the Hero Point formula been changed (from sum of stats), or do we just live with the lower damage?

On a related note, based on WoW it was impossible for any character to be able to lift a Tank (SIZ 150). Will BRP use the same SIZ chart as Superworld (WoW) or a different scale (like the stand alone Superworld RPG) so that we can get comicbook level heroes?

Is there a note for dialing up/down the power level for heroes. Something like 2x Hero Points for more powerful characters, and so forth?

[Shaira]

Originally Posted by Jason Durall

It's the spell list, primarily, with a few cuts due to being non-applicable outside of the Stormbringer IP.

Thanks very much for the answer Jason - that helps a lot, and possibly makes things a bit easier! Looks like I might be rolling my own quite a bit on the Demon side of things - at least it's good having the old SB5 base to work from.

One other question occurred to me: the spells in WoW were always very "compressed", ie they did multiple things where other games would have used several separate spells. I think the most extreme example was "Enhance / Diminish", which basically covered 8 different effects (Increase STR, Decrease STR, Increase CON... etc, etc). If you have it cover all 7 BRP attributes, it covers 14 effects!

Does this kind of thing still hold with the BRP system? In WoW it was the rationale (AFAIK) behind the fact you could only hold in mind INT/2 spells - you wouldn't really need more than 9 if they were all that multi-purpose!

My game world requires much more granularity in its spells, something like RQ or SB, so I'll be splitting the spells back out again and therefore tweaking the INT/2 calc to probably be just INT - it'll more or less amount to the same thing.

Just curious!

Sarah

[Jason Durall]

Originally Posted by Atgxtg

WoW Superworld used a different Damage bonus forumula (+1d6 for each 10 points of STR OR SIZ over 14, not both). Just wondering, but how will that worl in BRP?

I decided to stick with the one damage chart, for consistency's sake. A superpower sourcebook might offer an alternate chart.

Originally Posted by Atgxtg

Has the cost for stats been tweaked (like sat 2-1 for STR), has the Hero Point formula been changed (from sum of stats), or do we just live with the lower damage?

I don't have the m.s. handy, but I think the answer to your question is that stat point costs were changed, and that lower damage is a necessary fallout from the standardization of the damage modifier table.

Originally Posted by Atgxtg

On a related note, based on WoW it was impossible for any character to be able to lift a Tank (SIZ 150). Will BRP use the same SIZ chart as Superworld (WoW) or a different scale (like the stand alone Superworld RPG) so that we can get comicbook level heroes?

The SIZ chart is a synthesis of the SIZ charts from a few BRP games. Some vehicles have had their SIZ adjusted.

(I find the inconsistency of how SIZ scales relative to itself, and between BRP games, to be the second-most frustrating attribute of the system.)

Originally Posted by Atgxtg

Is there a note for dialing up/down the power level for heroes. Something like 2x Hero Points for more powerful characters, and so forth?

Yes. There are four "levels" of play. Normal, Heroic, Epic, and Superhuman. The default character points for each level differ tremendously.

There is also an optional rule for a standardized point total for all characters rather than the sum of all rolled characteristics (which further polarizes characters with "good" vs "poor" characteristic totals). Point-buy characteristics are also a suggested optional system to level things out.

[Jason Durall]

Originally Posted by Shaira

One other question occurred to me: the spells in WoW were always very "compressed", ie they did multiple things where other games would have used several separate spells.
...
Does this kind of thing still hold with the BRP system? In WoW it was the rationale (AFAIK) behind the fact you could only hold in mind INT/2 spells - you wouldn't really need more than 9 if they were all that multi-purpose!

The goal with the inclusion of the Magic World spells was to provide a very simple magic system with a lot of flexibility in what each spell did, rather than a long list of spells.

The system is transparent enough, and modifications easy enough, to make any "decompression" of effects pretty easy for a GM to do.

[Atgxtg]

Thanks for the feedback, Jason.

I agree that the SIZ differences between BRP gasmes is very annoying. Wish they would just revise to to somethlike like a cross betwen RQ3 and CoC and apply to all BRP games.

I amlso glad about the character point pool. Your right about the way hero points worked. Great stats made for better characters.

[Kloster]

Hi Jason,

What is the basis of skill amount in preliminary experience (EDU like in CoC, number of years like RQIII, a flat amount fixed by the rules or fixed amount assigned by the player)?

Is there skill categories (with their modificators) like in RQ or not?

Thanks.

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

[Jason Durall]

Originally Posted by Kloster

What is the basis of skill amount in preliminary experience (EDU like in CoC, number of years like RQIII, a flat amount fixed by the rules or fixed amount assigned by the player)?

There's an amount assigned based on the level of the campaign (normal, heroic, epic, superhuman). EDU is optional, so the skill point totals are standardized, or EDU is used if used. But it's a "get X points for profession, X points for personal interests (based off INT)" with a few options (the "how does your character solve problems?" extra skill points from Elric!).

Plus, taking additional age for more skill points.

Characters generally have more base skill points than any previous iteration of BRP, or at least that's my impression based on the playtest.

Originally Posted by Kloster

Is there skill categories (with their modificators) like in RQ or not?

As an optional rule, but matching the system (more or less) from RQ3.

[Nightshade]

Originally Posted by Jason Durall

There's an amount assigned based on the level of the campaign (normal, heroic, epic, superhuman). EDU is optional, so the skill point totals are standardized, or EDU is used if used. But it's a "get X points for profession, X points for personal interests (based off INT)" with a few options (the "how does your character solve problems?" extra skill points from Elric!).

I'd like to say this seems a good comprimise between a totally freeform skill point system and a heavily structured one that would be hard to generalize.'

Also, did your last answer mean that the default is that skills are _not_ effected by attributes?

[Atgxtg]

What sort of characters/setting does the rulebook cover? Are the backgrounds for a medieval setting, modern day, futurstic, a max, or generic (scholar, soldier, etc.).

What can we write up for characters with just the core book?