Why is BRP not that popular?

[McBard]

(longtime COC/RQ player, first-time poster here--glad to have found you!)

I want my games to be gritty... but then I'm not a huge fan of Hollywood blockbusters either...

Two comments:

1) I think a look at ENWorld over the past couple of years will uncover a fairly large outcry for a more gritty d20 approach (e.g. Grim n' Gritty [obviously], even True 20 to a certain extent...). Whether this minority outcry translates into BRP gameplay and sales, I don't know.

2) I find it a bit ironic that BRP would be the perfect system to drive a Middle Earth campaign (whether a Jackson-based or more source-pure one) given that LOTR is usually cited as more of an inspiration for D&D and so very unlike Glorantha.

[Atgxtg]

Probably one of the biggest ironies about BRP is that it'S grim and gritty approach apparently didn't suit Glorantha, either, at least according to both Greg Stafford and Steve Perrin.

[Trifletraxor]

Originally Posted by McBard

(longtime COC/RQ player, first-time poster here--glad to have found you!)

Glad to have you onboard! :-)

I find it a bit ironic that BRP would be the perfect system to drive a Middle Earth campaign (whether a Jackson-based or more source-pure one) given that LOTR is usually cited as more of an inspiration for D&D and so very unlike Glorantha.

Yup. If you check the link list, there's actually a guy who have taken the effort to create a BRP conversion out of Middle Earth.

Sverre.

[Agentorange]

In fact there are two BRP/middle earth conversions ,though t'other one may be over on the Greenback clan big RQ link list.

[Trifletraxor]

Colin Brett's Home Page

What's the second one?

Sverre.

[Agentorange]

Did I not send you the link ? Bugger, it took me ages to find it the first time round , I'll have another look when I get time.

[McBard]

Glad to have you onboard! :-)

Thanks!

If you check the link list, there's actually a guy who have taken the effort to create a BRP conversion out of Middle Earth.

Ah, very nice.

[badcat]

Yes, it is. I particularly like what he did with the Magic World magic system. When I first heard about the new BRP book I was hoping for something like that to be in it but alas, Jason Durall said it is not expanded upon very much past the original...

Witness the power of fandom.

Finally working for BRP.

[Aycorn]

Originally Posted by Simlasa

I think COC's strength is a fairly cohesive and colorful mythos... and the definitive flavor of the 20's and the pulp/jazz age (though it seems like modern settings are just as popular). I think it's been a good seller in SPITE of the spectre of near-certain character demise/insanity (though I don't think it has to be as common as a lot of folks seem to assume).
Maybe people mostly play it as one-offs... like Paranoia? Maybe they tweak it so the PCs can rape/loot/pillage the Old Ones into being just like orcs in D&D?

I think many people do, but frankly, as a long-time player, I had a group that went two years and only lost one character to death/insanity.

I think it depends on (a) smart players who know enough not to go toe-to-toe with some powerful monster (b) a GM who gives players a fighting chance.

Of course, there seem to be a LOT of COC players who apparently prefer the "you open the door and - IT'S YOG-SOTHOTH!! Everyone dies!! The universe explodes!!! AHAHAHAAH!!!"

Different strokes and all...

[Simlasa]

Yeah, I can't say any of the Great Old Ones have ever made an appearance in the COC games I've run... our games are more like Holmes and Moriarty... where Holmes knew he was out there, somewhere... but didn't really come face to face with him until that last fatal moment (which we've never gone too)...
Also, I think people assume that every game of COC has to be about some Earth shattering plot they need to thwart... whereas I think it works just as well, if not better, to keep the focus more personal... closer to home... a lot can be done with just wierd cultists and minor Mythos entities... as well as the occasional string of games that have no Mythos content at all.

I think the D&D legacy sets people up to expect 'over the top' adventures in their RPGs... bright colors, lots of magic... then they get to COC and the magic is kind of off-limits and the colors are a lot more subtle... some people thrive on that and other get turned off...