Playtest Questions

[badcat]

There can be a fine line between 'willing suspension of disbelief' and 'internal consistency', and I submit that having an instinct for drawing that line is the key to writing good stories or rpgs...

[Jason Durall]

Originally Posted by Fear of the Duck

CHARATER CREATION
What is a Wizards Prime Stat? - we used EDU, but as an optional rule is this supposed to be INT or POW.

Fair enough question, though the term "Prime Stat" is a misnomer, as BRP doesn't use anything equivalent. And they're characteristics.

If the GM is using the Magic system, it's either going to be INT or POW, though there is no base requirement for either. INT means you'll end up with more spells at a higher skill level, and POW is useful as the energy to cast them with.

If the GM is using the Sorcery system, the minimum POW is 16, as it says in the description of Sorcery.

Psychic powers also don't have a minimum characteristic, but POW is useful for the same reasons as with Magic.

I have no idea why you'd use EDU, as it is an optional characteristic and isn't referred to at all in the original Magic World, Stormbringer/Elric!, or those relevant power sections.

But I will make a note to include a sentence explaining the above in the entry for the profession.

I might also change the description to say "You may have the ability to use magic" rather than assuming it - there are plenty of people who call themselves "wizards" but don't actually have any supernatural powers. Alan Moore, for example, considers himself a practicing magician, and though I have immense respect for his creative abilities, I think he's about as supernaturally gifted as a sea-turtle.

[Jason Durall]

Originally Posted by Fear of the Duck

SKILLS
What use is the Perform Ritual Skill - it doesn't fit with the Magic Skills?

Because it isn't a magical skill, any more than Juggle or Orate.

It's a ritual, like those performed week after week in churches, temples, mosques, synagogues, and shrines across the world.

The GM may decide that the skill allows a bonus to the use of a supernatural ability, but there's no mechanical link between the two.

(But thanks for making me look at the Perform skill description again - I see that Sam put Juggle in twice and left Ritual out as a speciality.)

[Jason Durall]

Originally Posted by Fear of the Duck

SKILLS
How many extra Skill Points do you get at each power level?

Read Step Seven on pages 21 and 24, or the two-page spread on pages 22-23.

How did you miss that?

[Nightshade]

Originally Posted by Atgxtg

Good point. I think what HEOR doesn;t handle well, and what no RPG does, for that matter, is using all settings at differernt power levels.

That's very difficult to do, and you have to make some sacrifices to do it that almost no game is willing to.

[Nightshade]

Originally Posted by Enpeze

If this is the second or third common genre in US (maybe after fantasy and after SF) then its definately a cultural thing.

Very possibly. Note how many superhero movies have come out of Hollywood in recent years, and where most superhero comics are published.

I agree that powers could be interesting for some other uses than comic superheroes. But if they are mixed with other "normal" genres then this should be done in a careful way and not just mixing and crossing like hell.

Definitely.

It seems that the TO wants the system to do this. IMO, he negates the fact that DBRP is a selected compilation of existing OOP stuff and not a new edition called BRP 2.0. And thats why I think that he did not apply the DBRP rules as Jason or Chaosium intended.

More than that, I think its fundamentally an error in how BRP seems to want to deal with subsystems; it builds dedicated ones for the purpose, not an all purpose approach like Hero's powers. The ones in the core book just happen to be ones that Jason had models for and seemed like they might be generically useful. That doesn't mean they're all going to mix together properly, because that's not what they're for, as Jason has said from the first time I heard him talk about it.

But maybe Jason could tell us if he thinks that the power system could be mixed freely with the general character generation system without beeing unbalanced or broken. Thanks in advance.

He's already said that there'd be problems mixing some of the systems in the past.

[Atgxtg]

Originally Posted by Jason Durall

Alan Moore, for example, considers himself a practicing magician, and though I have immense respect for his creative abilities, I think he's about as supernaturally gifted as a sea-turtle.

Wow! I lost a good character one to a Sea Turtle. I didn't know Mr. Moore was so powerful.

[Atgxtg]

Originally Posted by Nightshade

That's very difficult to do, and you have to make some sacrifices to do it that almost no game is willing to.

True. I might even go so far as to say that it really ins't possible to do it, and get a good system. Perhaps the old Mayfair Exponetnial Games System useing id DC Heroes was the most scaleable, but paid for it in other ways. A doubling scale doesn't have as many fine grades in the human range.

[Nightshade]

Originally Posted by Atgxtg

True. I might even go so far as to say that it really ins't possible to do it, and get a good system. Perhaps the old Mayfair Exponetnial Games System useing id DC Heroes was the most scaleable, but paid for it in other ways. A doubling scale doesn't have as many fine grades in the human range.

You can do it with any progressive system (one where one increment means more than the prior one), but such systems are by their nature coarser and less specific than linear or quasi-linear systems, and you have to make good and sure that all elements scale up with it.

[Atgxtg]

Originally Posted by Nightshade

You can do it with any progressive system (one where one increment means more than the prior one), but such systems are by their nature coarser and less specific than linear or quasi-linear systems, and you have to make good and sure that all elements scale up with it.

Yup, exactly. The problem with such systems is that the numbers they give are in gamespeak and conversion into and out of real world measurements isn't as easy. Someone going 60miles/100kph knows how long it will take to get to a town 30miles/50km away. Put that into game terms and you got to look at the tables.

Pretty much most of the superhero RPGs use an non linear progression of some sort. Even RPG/BRP uses it for SIZ