Playtest Questions

[Fear of the Duck]

BOOK LAYOUT
I have always thought that one of the things that Chaosium has improved over the years is its clear book layouts; however we found this disjointed and often hard to follow (See note on Grey Boxes).

Example 1. P.167 suddenly skips to the bottom quarter of P.169.

Example 2. The Optional Rules chart on P. 273 would be better / easier to find as an appendix.

[Fear of the Duck]

POWERS - Summoning
No stats for Demons or Elementals

In comparison to Stormbringer the Summoning process is very basic and there is difference

[Fear of the Duck]

Now to be fair this is all information I passed back to Charlie & Lyn a while back, so may of these issues may now have been fixed, but I would certainly like to see some major improvements in the book before I for one would buy a copy.

I look forward to your comments.

[badcat]

It seems to me that most of this is dissatisfaction with the authors' choices. Otherwise, since you have already stated your problems to the Chaosium guys, I think we should just wait and see the finalized book before we talk about these issues, if such they are.

I don't know if I am going to buy it or not, because I don't agree with some of Jasons choices either; I have my own houseruled version of BRP and cannot tell at this point how useful the book will be to me. The preview looks good, and I just don't see any point to your posts at this time.

[Trifletraxor]

Think we need Jason on this one, as most of us haven't even seen a copy of the playtest rules. (Oh why didn't they ask me!?? )

SGL.

[Enpeze]

Originally Posted by badcat

It seems to me that most of this is dissatisfaction with the authors' choices. Otherwise, since you have already stated your problems to the Chaosium guys, I think we should just wait and see the finalized book before we talk about these issues, if such they are.

I don't know if I am going to buy it or not, because I don't agree with some of Jasons choices either; I have my own houseruled version of BRP and cannot tell at this point how useful the book will be to me. The preview looks good, and I just don't see any point to your posts at this time.

Which choices you dont agree?
I think the most "complaints" are about some minor flaws. There is a valid chance that they have been rooted out by Chaosium already.

Also most of the (many) posts of FoD concern his own opinions, which are just that, opinions. For example he meant that EDU is an integral part of BRP and should be the "main attribute of a wizard". Both assumptions are not correct IMO. AFASIK EDU is only used in CoC. How should the appearance in a single incarnation of BRP qualify for beeing an integral part? Its optional nothing else. And that "wizards should have a main attribute" is a class-centered gaming philosophy which I think BRP wants to avoid.

Nontheless many thanks FoD for posting this list to enable a discussion.

[Trifletraxor]

I must say I share his concerns weither Basic Roleplaying is trying to handle too many settings at once, to many options giving to little attention to each.

Supers is not a typical BRP setting, and can probably not be handled that well. Fantasy/historic, modern/horror/post acopalyptic and science fiction (only three different rules set really) would have been more than enough.

I'm also worried that 5 different "powers" will lead to 5 very incomplete ones.

But that's all to late to worry about now, we'll see when the book is out.

SGL.

[frogspawner]

These are just the sort of thing I'm looking forward to debating on this forum!

I'm even more eager to buy a copy now, so I can talk about it from a position of knowledge, and not ignorance/hearsay. And I recommend everyone else does too (including you, Mr Duck).

BTW, Fear of the Duck, how do you feel about the Mongoose?

[Enpeze]

Originally Posted by Trifletraxor

I must say I share his concerns weither Basic Roleplaying is trying to handle too many settings at once, to many options giving to little attention to each.

Supers is not a typical BRP setting, and can probably not be handled that well. Fantasy/historic, modern/horror/post acopalyptic and science fiction (only three different rules set really) would have been more than enough.

I'm also worried that 5 different "powers" will lead to 5 very incomplete ones.

But that's all to late to worry about now, we'll see when the book is out.

SGL.

I agree Supers is not very typical. At least I dont know anybody who is interested in playing comic super-heroes. Maybe just a cultural thing. In central Europe those comics are rather for kids or young teens.

But nonetheless Superworld was an incarnation of BRP and so it belongs to the system somehow. DBRP is intended as compilation of the old BRP editions and so I am fine with the inclusion of superworld.

One fear I have is that many gamers which are not accustomed with the idea behind DBRP dont understand that it is a compilation of older incarnations and not a streamlined new edition of BRP. Maybe they expect that it will be like a compact generic system like GURPS only with simpler rules. Those gamers could be disappointed and DBRP could receive some unreasonable flak from them.

[Trifletraxor]

Originally Posted by Enpeze

One fear I have is that many gamers which are not accustomed with the idea behind DBRP dont understand that it is a compilation of older incarnations and not a streamlined new edition of BRP. Maybe they expect that it will be like a compact generic system like GURPS only with simpler rules. Those gamers could be disappointed and DBRP could receive some unreasonable flak from them.

But isn't that a rather bad idea? If they want to front Basic Roleplaying as a generic system, it should be a streamlined new edition, not just a compilation.

SGL.