BRP Conversions

Greetings all.

Since BRP is IMO, the best gaming system out there, I would like to see how our BRP community goes about converting good ideas from other systems to the beloved BRP.

I would ask that if you post something pulled from somewhere else, please put who made it. Also, if you disagree with how someone else does it,give your version and why you feel yours is better...simply saying "you're wrong" does nothing to further the hobby or your argument.

So, here are some that I found already on the forums. If there is already a thread with this topic, feel free to merge it friendly moderator

If there is a copyright issue, feel free to delete

West End Games D6 to BRP by Wolverine (Nathan Baron)

I'm using the equipment straight out of the BRP book. One thing I must point out is, because Star Wars is very heroic, hit points are worked out using CON+SIZ as a total. BRP is a very gritty system, and can very horrific when it comes to personal combat. A critical and that's scratch one player character. That's why I doubled hit points for heroic characters. That includes major antagonists, such as Darth Vader, to represent the threat they pose. Non-heroic characters, such as Stormtroopers and the like, then keep hit points as normal. A blaster bolt should fell them easily.

I've decided that if you have 5D in a skill, a player simply adds +50% to the relevant skill base in BRP

For converting characteristics, here is an idea:

1D = 8

2D = 10

3D = 12

4D = 15

5D = 18

New = Original WEG

STR = Strength

DEX = Dexterity

CON = Strength

SIZ = Roll for using normal rules

INT = Knowledge + Technical divided by 2

POW = Perception + Technical divided by 2

APP = Perception + Knowledge divided by 2

Traveller to BRP by Stefan Matthias Aust

Traveller/BRP Rules

Fallen Future: Cyberthulhu Gaming by Sandy Antunes (Psuedo converstion from Cyberpunk)

Fallen Future: Cyberthulhu Gaming

GURPS to BRP by Aycorn (SIZ by Joseph Paul)

Okay, as requested.

Basically, it's like this =

ST = STR

DX = DEX

IQ = INT

HT = CON

APP = APP or CHA

WILL = could be translated to POW. Or not.

SIZ = Racial maximums for some of the BRP games was highest roll plus the # of dice rolled I believe, which would take a 3d6 human to 21. That makes a 2d6+6 trait top out at 20 then.

For SIZ you could consult some of the different weight to SIZ charts that were part of different BRP games. Jason has written that there is a SIZ chart included in the new one. Weight in GURPS does not seem to come into play all that much but there is a table for rolling it. You may need to wing SIZ for the spear carriers and NPCs though.

In Superworld weight over SIZ 20 is found by wt(kilos)=2^(SIZ/8)*25. This does not work below SIZ 20, does anyone know what was used for that? Anyone want to take a stab at rearanging that formula so that you can input SIZ and it will spit out mass?

That's really pretty much it. After that, just ignore GURPS ratings and plug in appropriate ones from BRP. If you understand BRP, that shouldn't be at all difficult.

Only potential tricky part is that GURPS allows well over 18. You'd just have to make a decision - over 18? Or stop at 18?

All in all, GURPS > BRP should be a piece of cake.

D20 to BRP by me

Ability Scores

The same six ability scores used in D20 are used in BRP, with some additions. Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence transfer directly over to BRP without modification. Charisma becomes Appearance. Education is equal to INT+WIS divided by 2. Power is equal to Wisdom.

For races that do not have a D20 corollary, use the following table to find their racial speed.

[table]Racial Mod|Speed (default 8 for humans)

10’ round| 2 SPD

15’ round |4 SPD

20’ round |6 SPD

25’ round| 8 SPD

30’ round| 10 SPD

35’ round| 12 SPD

40’ round| 14 SPD

45’ round| 16 SPD

50’ round| 18 SPD

55’ round| 20 SPD

60’ round| 22 SPD

65’ round| 24 SPD

70’ round| 26 SPD[/table]

Ability score modifiers and attribute checks

When converting from D20 to BRP, ability bonuses are lost. Make sure to remove ability bonuses from skills before converting.

Classes

BRP does not have classes, and class level is immaterial in conversion.

Skills

The difficulty of converting from D20 to BRP is that most of the skills used in D20 are very broad based. D20 skill ranks x 5% = BRP skill ratings

Spells should be counted as skills. The level + 1 of the Spell is the Power cost to cast. The % of the skill is determined as follows (Level of the caster – the level of the spell) x 5% equals the skill percentage.

Feats

Feats will translate into a skill or act as bonus for other skills or abilities or as situational modifiers.

Alignment

There is no alignment in BRP.

Damage

Use BRP equivalents for weapons. Magic damage remains unchanged (although due to the low hp of BRP, you may want to reduce magic damage by ½ or by ¼ depending on the GM’s discretion)

Hit Points

Determine as per BRP (SIZ + CON)/2

Armor Class

Use BRP equivalents, although magic weapons and armor should retain their bonuses (although instead of an AC bonus, it becomes an AV bonus)

Rules

The following rules are easily able to be shifted into BRP without any difficulty; Initiative, Actions per round, Injury and death, Movement and Position, Combat modifiers and Attacks of Opportunity.

Difficulty Class

To change a D20 Difficulty Class to a BRP difficulty modifier, multiply the DC by 2.

I know there is a Dark Heresy conversion somewhere on here and I am looking forward to any others people may have. I will dig out my palladium notes soon and post those.

-STS

West End Games D6 to BRP by Wolverine (Nathan Baron)

I will be writing up the basics for BRP Star Wars, if anyone is interested. It seems a lot of people are. Of course, I still have my BRP Sharpe scenarios sitting on my hard drive. They need working on too! I'll post up the files on PDF, once I've worked on them.

Since BRP is IMO, the best gaming system out there, I would like to see how our BRP community goes about converting good ideas from other systems to the beloved BRP. ...

D20 to BRP by me...

Yes! And hopefully there'll be a big demand for this particular conversion very soon.

I feel like I've been doing not much else for the last 10 years or so :shocked: and would like to hear more details. Is your D20>BRP conversion theoretical, or have you actually been using/living/breathing it?

Nice work getting these up, STS!

Alignment

There is no alignment in BRP.

The Allegiance system is a nice replacement for alignment.

I will dig out my palladium notes soon and post those.

Be careful of that one - Palladium tends to get system conversions pulled off the Internet.

-Matt

Greetings all.

D20 to BRP by me

Ability Scores

The same six ability scores used in D20 are used in BRP, with some additions. Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence transfer directly over to BRP without modification. Charisma becomes Appearance. Education is equal to INT+WIS divided by 2. Power is equal to Wisdom.

EDU should be modified by level. This would help represent characters who have higher levels having more general knowledge, keep the max at 18 or whatever, but it should be worked into the equation.

Classes

BRP does not have classes, and class level is immaterial in conversion.

But it does have professions. Classes should deteremine what skills are available for starting characters, much like professions. I have been looking at Fading Suns D20 and doing just that, using the SRD and OGL to translate those D20 skills to BRP.

Skills

The difficulty of converting from D20 to BRP is that most of the skills used in D20 are very broad based. D20 skill ranks x 5% = BRP skill ratings

Spells should be counted as skills. The level + 1 of the Spell is the Power cost to cast. The % of the skill is determined as follows (Level of the caster – the level of the spell) x 5% equals the skill percentage.

Seems kind of low %, by that logic most fighters will have two skills at 20% to start with. Seems weak and boring. Try x10% and leave ability score modifiers in the game at +3% or +5% per +1.

If using Education or other means to determine starting skills, ignore any D20 skills and use them as a guide for spending skill points. For a quick reference just multiply the exisiting D20 skill bonus (which usually has feat and ability score modifiers already added in) by 7% or so.

Feats

Feats will translate into a skill or act as bonus for other skills or abilities or as situational modifiers.

Ignore feats unless using them to translate into powers or other abilities. Of course as skill modifiers and other "fluff" or "flavor" material they may be handy descriptive terms.

Alignment

There is no alignment in BRP.

True, but alignments really dont screw the game up any, they just add role playing guidance.

Damage

Use BRP equivalents for weapons. Magic damage remains unchanged (although due to the low hp of BRP, you may want to reduce magic damage by ½ or by ¼ depending on the GM’s discretion)

Hit Points

Determine as per BRP (SIZ + CON)/2

I would use SIZ+CON and leave it at that. Perhaps (SIZ+CON)/2 for non-consequential NPCs and thugs, but named characters should get an edge. Reduce damage accordingly for spells and what not, afterall with no real level system in BRP the best a character really does is crits and impales, so the higher the spell ability the better the chance of crit or impale.

Armor Class

Use BRP equivalents, although magic weapons and armor should retain their bonuses (although instead of an AC bonus, it becomes an AV bonus)

Makes perfect sense. D&D style AC never made sense in any game I ever played, especially D20 Modern. I kind of accept it in classic OD&D or BD&D as part of the early RPG Game flavor, but dont like it in modern "new" style games. I prefer soak values over "Im in plate, you cant hit me" concepts.

Rules

Difficulty Class

To change a D20 Difficulty Class to a BRP difficulty modifier, multiply the DC by 2.

Sounds reasonable, or create a chart telling you what class of difficulty the skill becomes based on the DC.

I know there is a Dark Heresy conversion somewhere on here and I am looking forward to any others people may have. I will dig out my palladium notes soon and post those.

Dark Heresy to BRP. Give it to me now.

You know, I always sort of liked Rifts (the first 5 or 6 books at least) but never liked the Palladium system (except in TMNT&OS where it made the game feel like a very bad 1970s clay-mation movie). I would like to see Palladium games take their Rifts to the OGL world even if they released it with D20 or Mongoose RQ. Heck, surprises me they havent tried that yet, since they, you know, need the money.

Spells should be counted as skills. The level + 1 of the Spell is the Power cost to cast. The % of the skill is determined as follows (Level of the caster – the level of the spell) x 5% equals the skill percentage.

-STS

Dont know how i missed this. This implies a 1st level caster could never cast a 1st level spell. How about this.

Chance to cast spell=50%+(Caster Level x5%)-(Spell Level x5%), with feats and other spell abilities adding modifiers. Components and gestures could also be calculated into this effect.

you could make it Caster's POW vs Spell Level X2 and use the resistance/opposition table.

Or just allow them to allocate skill points to said spell as a normal skill.

Trying to convert skills, abilities and feats from d20 to brp by a formula is pointless in my opinion. You can't really measure the power of a character that easily, especially if you combine the right feats with magical items and spells. The work that is necessary to make a list of bonusses for hundreds (or thousands if you use all the books) of feats isn't worth it. Converting characters is more an art than a science.

I would look at the d20 character concept and transfer it to brp. That means a high level fighter who uses a longsword and spends nearly all of his feats to be better at combat would be something similar in brp. Just make a really good fighter and round him out with some background skills that seem to fit. It's faster and you get better results - the systems are too different for an 1:1 approach.

Trying to convert skills, abilities and feats from d20 to brp by a formula is pointless in my opinion. You can't really measure the power of a character that easily...

True - almost. But I'd say there is a point: a formula can provide a good starting point. Certainly it shouldn't be graven in stone, if a particular character doesn't seem to come out right.

What makes "a really good fighter" isn't well defined. Some long-standing campaigns can produce Heroes with skills about 150%, others 400%, others 2000%! All are fine. Formulae can give a good objective yardstick to use. (Even if some campaigns apply a multiplier! Though it might be nice to agree an 'industry standard' Hero...)

Spells should be counted as skills. The level + 1 of the Spell is the Power cost to cast. The % of the skill is determined as follows (Level of the caster – the level of the spell) x 5% equals the skill percentage.

Dont know how i missed this. This implies a 1st level caster could never cast a 1st level spell. How about this.

Chance to cast spell=50%+(Caster Level x5%)-(Spell Level x5%), with feats and other spell abilities adding modifiers. Components and gestures could also be calculated into this effect.

you could make it Caster's POW vs Spell Level X2 and use the resistance/opposition table.

Or just allow them to allocate skill points to said spell as a normal skill.

The main trouble with any of these methods is the uncertainty they bring to spell-casting. In D20, you try to cast a spell and it happens. Replace that with one of the above systems (where a spell might only have an 80%, or even 50%, chance of working in the face of an onrushing enemy) and quite soon the wizards are dead.

In my (X years old) BRP-style campaign the latest system I've been using for D20-style spells says the spell works even when the skill-roll fails - but with half effect.

(With that proviso, any of the above formulae would be fine - including STS's original.)

Formulae can give a good objective yardstick to use. (Even if some campaigns apply a multiplier! Though it might be nice to agree an 'industry standard' Hero...)

There is nothing objective about a formula where the weight of the variables is chosen subjectively. It gives you to feel of something solid, but it is not.

Of course it is harder to define the "punch" of a character in brp and the percentages may vary, but that is more an argument against a formula. The fighter was just an example - to make a good conversion, you have to look what defines a character and what makes him "tick". Then you look at your brp campaign (which will usually have a different power-level) and put the character in relation to similar characters in that environment. D&D and BRP are just to different to take the formula-approach, at least for me.

There is nothing objective about a formula where the weight of the variables is chosen subjectively. It gives you to feel of something solid, but it is not.

Of course it is harder to define the "punch" of a character in brp and the percentages may vary, but that is more an argument against a formula. The fighter was just an example - to make a good conversion, you have to look what defines a character and what makes him "tick". Then you look at your brp campaign (which will usually have a different power-level) and put the character in relation to similar characters in that environment. D&D and BRP are just to different to take the formula-approach, at least for me.

Yeah but lets say I have a random encounter happen in BRP and I am running a futuristic society game set in New York in the year 2435. So I grab a D20 future book (or maybe Judge Dredd) and look at the stats for a Street Cop of the future and I just want a quick thumb rule for how good he is at say Intimidation and Sense Motive type abilities. I see he has +7 in both skills, I multiply by 7 (to take into consideration of stat bonuses and fear bonuses) and see he has roughly a 50% (49%) ability with them. This allows me to quickly just assign stats that are probably more balanced then me just saying "He's a cop in the future, he has it at 35%" or "Stallone in Judge Dredd probably had a 80%."

I agree whole heartedly that if you are going to convert a character up front and have time to do it, just build the guy as normal and use the write up from D20 (or D6 or any other system) as a guideline. Some stats and facts you can use 100% (hmm says here he is X feet tall and Y pounds in weight, seems to me he is Z SIZ, and with his 15 CON in D20, might as well give him a 15 CON in BRP giving h im (Z+15)/2 hit points) and so forth.

Now some things are more tricky as said above, spells dont convert 100%. Are they skills? If so, dont they have skill % for success? Actually Id just make the margin you fail by the bonus the victim gets to resist the spell.

There is nothing objective about a formula where the weight of the variables is chosen subjectively. ... D&D and BRP are just too different to take the formula-approach, at least for me.

A good (though formulaic) D20>BRP Conversion system might help D&D3.5-ers (who don't like 4e) seize the opportunity to upgrade to BRP (a more mature, stable system) - even if they don't know BRP well enough to make the subjective decisions that you could.

By all means add advice about adjustments for campaign power-levels and keeping character - but I think we should have the Conversion ready for them, just in case. And where better to start than the number one BRP site? :party:

D20 to BRP by me...

Rules

The following rules are easily able to be shifted into BRP without any difficulty; Initiative, Actions per round, Injury and death, Movement and Position, Combat modifiers and Attacks of Opportunity.

Sorry, but that's not converting D20 characters to the BRP system - it's the other way around! (Basically, though, I agree with you. Apart from combat modifiers, I use those D20 rules in my own BRP-like system. But we are supposed to be doing D20>BRP here...)

Magic damage remains unchanged (although due to the low hp of BRP, you may want to reduce magic damage by ½ or by ¼ depending on the GM’s discretion)

Yes, I do - but by the back door. Having a 'half-effect if spell-casting roll fails' normally halves damage (given low casting skill), and then defining spell-effects in terms of level of power expended (instead of character level) typically halves it again.

Now some things are more tricky as said above, spells dont convert 100%. Are they skills? If so, dont they have skill % for success? Actually Id just make the margin you fail by the bonus the victim gets to resist the spell.

Good point - should "Saving Throws" be handled this way?

I understand that you want an easy system as a guideline and it could work pretty well for archetypes and low-level characters. Most of the data in a d20-stat-block can be converted straight forward, the only problems I see are skills, feats (abilities), spells and the attack boni.

For skills I personally would prefer two tables. Table 1 contains the d20-skills and the corresponding brp-skills. Table 2 contains the total d20 skill bonus (including feats and boni) from 0-30 and the percantage in brp. That way you can look at your d20 stat block and have a result by looking in the tables without the need to calculate anything. Additionally you can ignore all feats that give you a bonus to skills.

For weapons you can use a similar table, so that you can ignore feats that give attack boni.

For the remaining feats it is a little more complicated - instead of endless descriptions of feat-conversions you can either make some examples for common feats like power attack or a general guideline that each feat should give the equivalent of a 5% skill bonus (or whatever seems appropriate).

The spell-systems are different in a lot of d20 systems (you could use the skill conversion for star wars d20 for example). I think it would be best to just provide a table with the d20-level and corresponding brp-data like the number of spells, the total percentage to distribute on the spells and the max-percentage per spell.

The Allegiance system is a nice replacement for alignment.

Rules for "Alignment" are really outdated. Who needs guidelines to role-play their character? Not everyone falls neatly into a category, so why should are characters?

So how does Allegiance differ from Alignment?

Rules for "Alignment" are really outdated. Who needs guidelines to role-play their character? Not everyone falls neatly into a category, so why should are characters?

So how does Allegiance differ from Alignment?

I agree with "Alignment" being outdated. Personally the only reason I'm using alignment at all is because it's part of DnD 3.5 and that's the current system I'm using. As soon as my current campaign ends and I switch back to BRP, alignment goes away. I'd also like to hear more about the Allegiance system that's been spoken of.

Rules for "Alignment" are really outdated. Who needs guidelines to role-play their character? Not everyone falls neatly into a category, so why should are characters?

So how does Allegiance differ from Alignment?

Err, you HAVE played Stormbringer 5 / Elric! at some point, surely?

Alignment (in D&D) is a rather clumsy straight-jacket which really doesn't fit the way the game is usually played, but which is inter-twined with some fundemental aspects of the rules system (significant portions of the magic and class ability systems depend on the use of alignments in 3.0 / 3.5) and is awkward to remove without fairly major surgery to the game and its core assumptions.

Allegiance is a system that lets GM's codify the divine / metaphysical conflict(s) in a setting without straight-jacketing players and allows players who want pursue a specific philisophy / code for their characters to do so and, if they choose, reap some reward for it.

One could even import some Pendragon ideas - "inspiring" on ones Allegiance for example...

Cheers,

Nick Middleton

Err, you HAVE played Stormbringer 5 / Elric! at some point, surely?

Nope. Is Allegiance in BRP0?

Allegiance is a system that lets GM's codify the divine / metaphysical conflict(s) in a setting without straight-jacketing players and allows players who want pursue a specific philisophy / code for their characters to do so and, if they choose, reap some reward for it.

Cheers,

Nick Middleton

Sounds very intriguing to me and a better way to handle those who receive help from divine beings!

Some people love the Allegiance System, some seem to hate it... You have to keep an eye on it, 'cos it can get out of hand quite easily. Basically, you can create an Allegiance to a particular god, principle, moral code, etc, and if you do something significant which embodies that Allegiance you get an increase. So, you could have Allegiance (God of Death) 12, for example. You can then compare that to any other Allegiances you or someone else might have to see how relatively strong it is.

It starts getting interesting when you start allowing special effects from Allegiance. As Nick said, you could even allow "inspiring" from Allegiance; even with the BRP rules, you could conceivably use it to augment another skill roll at an appropriate juncture. Also, the Allegiance rules suggest things like getting extra temporary PP or skill points, etc, from your Allegiance, and even becoming a "champion" of a cause or deity. It can be very flexible.

I'm toying with Allegiance Powers in my game, wondering frex whether to require a certain degree of Allegiance to a deity before you can use certain divine powers. Kind of like the Rune Priest type distinction. The problem is that quite easily you can make Allegiance a *very* powerful stat, and I'm not sure about the unbalancing effect of that. I get the feeling you'd have to keep a tight lid on Allegiance score increases.

If you also use the Status Skill from BRP (which seems to track your relative standing in your peer group(s)) together with Allegiance, you have the makings of quite a sophisticated "relationship" system. As it's presented in the BRP core book, it's very generic, and you'd have to "roll your own" to quite a large extent to determine actual game effects, but it certainly bears thinking about more. I'm definitely going to be testing both out in-game.

Cheers,

Sarah

Wow, a lot of traffic.

Going from post to post…

I will be writing up the basics for BRP Star Wars, if anyone is interested. It seems a lot of people are. Of course, I still have my BRP Sharpe scenarios sitting on my hard drive. They need working on too! I'll post up the files on PDF, once I've worked on them.

Please do.

Anybody got any other homebrew conversions they want to post?

-STS

I'll do just that once I get more work done on my conversion! I will actually be able to do more in about a week or so, used Chaosium's April Fools sale to buy both the Zero Edition and also looking at getting Stormbringer. So I'll soon be reading and working toward converting my world, once again!

It strikes me Clerics haven't been handled for D20>BRP yet. (Are they in your big magic conversion/kit bash, STS?). Presumably they wouldn't have their spells as skills - since they just call 'em from on high (or low). This might be useful as a basis for priestly-types...

Some people love the Allegiance System, some seem to hate it... You have to keep an eye on it, 'cos it can get out of hand quite easily. Basically, you can create an Allegiance to a particular god, principle, moral code, etc, and if you do something significant which embodies that Allegiance you get an increase. So, you could have Allegiance (God of Death) 12, for example. You can then compare that to any other Allegiances you or someone else might have to see how relatively strong it is.

It starts getting interesting when you start allowing special effects from Allegiance. As Nick said, you could even allow "inspiring" from Allegiance; even with the BRP rules, you could conceivably use it to augment another skill roll at an appropriate juncture. Also, the Allegiance rules suggest things like getting extra temporary PP or skill points, etc, from your Allegiance, and even becoming a "champion" of a cause or deity. It can be very flexible.

I'm toying with Allegiance Powers in my game, wondering frex whether to require a certain degree of Allegiance to a deity before you can use certain divine powers. Kind of like the Rune Priest type distinction. The problem is that quite easily you can make Allegiance a *very* powerful stat, and I'm not sure about the unbalancing effect of that. I get the feeling you'd have to keep a tight lid on Allegiance score increases.

If you also use the Status Skill from BRP (which seems to track your relative standing in your peer group(s)) together with Allegiance, you have the makings of quite a sophisticated "relationship" system. As it's presented in the BRP core book, it's very generic, and you'd have to "roll your own" to quite a large extent to determine actual game effects, but it certainly bears thinking about more. I'm definitely going to be testing both out in-game.

Sounds good. I've been trying out personality-trait 'skills' (like Pendragon) but I'm not quite happy with how it's going - Allegiance/Status might work out better. For "inspiring" I've been allowing rolls against personality trait %s, once per session each, to double a skill for one use in a suitable situation (or halving if it fails). That works well, but my trait-skill increase/progression doesn't. Maybe Allegiance/Status will do the trick. (Is BRP's Status the same thing as S5/Elric's Allegiance? Do traits fit the usage of either?)

If you could have Allegiances to several different traits, that might dilute the unbalancing effect of a single, over-powerful Allegiance. Rather than Allegiance(Babisiya) or whatever deity, giving access to more powerful spells at certain percentages, you could have several "Trait-Allegiances" required of the god's priests (perhaps Pious, Cruel, Cunning, Vengeful, Cowardly in her case?). Presumably there'd be some normal skill requirements too, RQ-style - all to the good, I already use that approach in my converted campaign. Trait-skills would fit nicely.

:focus:

For Conversion from D20 you could have Allegiance(Law) or (Chaos), but presumably not both, and a separate Allegiance (Good) (or Evil) as well. Simplistic, but opens the door for other characterful loyalties/traits, breaking-in the D&D-ers gently. What percentages? Dunno.

It strikes me Clerics haven't been handled for D20>BRP yet.

[sNIP]

Is BRP's Status the same thing as S5/Elric's Allegiance? Do traits fit the usage of either?

[sNIP]

If you could have Allegiances to several different traits, that might dilute the unbalancing effect of a single, over-powerful Allegiance. Rather than Allegiance(Babisiya) or whatever deity, giving access to more powerful spells at certain percentages, you could have several "Trait-Allegiances" required of the god's priests (perhaps Pious, Cruel, Cunning, Vengeful, Cowardly in her case?). Presumably there'd be some normal skill requirements too, RQ-style - all to the good, I already use that approach in my converted campaign. Trait-skills would fit nicely.

The more I think about it, the more I think there's a really cool "relationships" system hiding somewhere in here, struggling to get out.

First, no - Status skill is *not* the same as SB5 Allegiance. It's actually a skill, and it has two quite different suggested uses. The first of these is a completely linear, absolute magnitude measurement of a character's overall social standing - depending on milieu, Status 10% could mean "peasant", Status 50% "merchant", Status 100% "king". I'll admit I don't like this system - it seems to try to codify something which in game terms probably should be quite woolly ("hey - you get 3 extra Status as a reward for killing the dragon - you're a knight now!"). It could work for games where the social milieu is very abstracted, but personally I deal with social strata differently.

The second use of the Status skill is much more cool! :cool: Basically, it measures your relative standing within your peer group. Say you're a peasant (chorus: "I'm a peasant..." ) - you want to go to the local lord and get some protection against the BEM that's plaguing your farm. Does he listen? How influential a peasant are you? That's where the Status score comes in - Status (Peasant) 10% is some antisocial shepherd who nobody really knows that well - Status (Peasant) 90% is Sheriff Jarndyke who always buys everyone drinks at the tavern.

So then you can have Status (Temple), Status (Legion), whatever, which can act as Opposed Skills, augment other skill attempts, and so on. I think there's a fair bit of mileage here.

Regarding Traits, I've shied away just for now, wanting to avoid the "quantify everything" approach of Pendragon, but I'm tempted by the Heroquest approach of just identifying major traits - maybe "Hate (Lunars) 75%" or some such. I think as one-off abilities, particularly gained through play, they could be useful. I'm a *little* wary of getting down to too much prescriptive stuff for "Rune-level entry" type mechanics just for now, though. So, the "Allegiance (Babisiya)" stat would represent all of the Cruel, Cunning, Vengeful traits rolled into one (nice definition of Babisiya's traits, BTW - you been reading over my shoulder? ). There's a lot of scope for customisation and flexibility here, though - my opinions are subject to change at the drop of a hat!

Interesting topic - worthy of its own thread?

Cheers,

Sarah

This is my (incomplete) version of a d20/brp conversion guideline. The focus is on converting statblocks (especially npcs) as easy as possible.

Definitions

===========

BRP Base Percentage of a Skill = BP

D20 Skill Bonus = SB

Ability Scores

==============

Strength = Strength

Dexterity = Dexterity

Constitution = Constitution

Size = the effects of Siz are part of Con in d20, I would either simply use Con, or use a formula that allows only a minor variation (like Siz = Con -3+1D6)

Intelligence = Intelligence

Power = Wisdom

Appearance = Charisma

Education = Intelligence + Wisdom / 2

Skills

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In d20 you usually have a statblock that includes only the total-skill-bonus (at least for NPC). It would be a lot of work to look for all the boni that may be included (Attributes, Feats, class, synergy). I would take the SB as it is (just exclude potential magical boni) and convert it with the following formula:

BRP Skill = BP + 4*SB

for example: Appraise +7 = Appraise 43% (15+4*7), Bluff +7 = Fast Talk 33% (05+4*7), Diplomacy +16 = Persuade 79% (15+4*16) (the table with related brp and d20 skills isn't ready yet).

That way you can ignore everything (except magic) that gives you skill boni because it is already included. Additionally you have converted the skills without ignoring the BRP-system-specific difficulty of a skill. And finally: it is so easy, that you are able to write a small program/or excel table, that does the complete skill conversion automatically without going into d20 rule details (and that would take some programming work). I know that the Attribute-boni to skills are still included and I would do it this way because a) it's easier, you often distribute skill points in d20 to get a certain bonus including attributes (and you would get weaker in the area in brp if you don't take that into account), and c) if you take only 4*SB (instead of 5*SB without boni) it doesn't make a lot of difference for the characters with better attributes. I think the resulting percentages (see example) are in an acceptable range, not too high for advanced characters and not too low for beginning characters.

Some d20-skills may have the same converted BRP-skill (spot and search (d20) would both convert to Spot (BRp) for example). In that case I would use the skill with the higher SB as a base and add 1*SB from the lower skill. The formula would be:

BRP Skill = BP + 4*SBhigh + 1*SBlow

for example: Spot +10, Search +8 = Spot 73% (25+40+8)

On the other hand, some d20-skills may convert into more than one brp- skill. If you think that would make them too powerful, you could use the following formula to make each brp skill a little weaker:

BRP Skill = BP + 3*SB

Languages: This is a little more difficult, in d20 it is assumed that you speak a language well, if you have the skill - so it is probably necessary to calculate Language (Other) in another way - maybe Edu*3 or something like that.

Weapons

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Same as skills, but you use the attack bonus of each weapon as a base for the calculation. The formula is:

Weapon Skill = BP + 4*(attack bonus with weapon)

for example: ranged+5 and Weapon Group Proficiency (blaster pistols) would convert to blaster pistol 40% (20+4*5)

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= Example d20 (star wars)-statblock =

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Male near-Human, Noble 2/Jedi Councilor 5; Init +1; Defense 18 (+7 class, +1 Dex); Spd 10m; VP/WP 49/14; Atk +5 melee (2d8+1/19-20, lightsaber) or +5 ranged; SQ Call in a favor, inspire confidence +l; SV Fort +6, Ref +6, Will +9; SZ M; FP 3; DSP 10; Rep 8; Str 13, Dex 13, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 15. Challenge Code: D.

Equipment: Lightsaber, personal transport

Skills: Appraise +7, Bluff +7, Computer Use +3, Diplomacy +16, Gather Information +9, Intimidate +7, Knowledge (Firrerre) +7, Knowledge (Jedi lore) +4, Knowledge (Sith lore) +6, Profession (merchant) +7, Read/Write Basic, Read/Write Firrerreo, Search +4, Sense Motive +9, Speak Basic, Speak Firrerreo.

Force Skills: Affect Mind +10, Empathy +7, Force Grip +6, Force Stealth +7, Friendship +7, Move Object +7, See Force +8.

Feats: Force-Sensitive, Sharp-Eyed, Trustworthy, Weapon Group Proficiency (blaster pistols, simple weapons).

Force Feats: Alter, Control, Deflect Blasters, Sense.

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= BRP =

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Male near-Human, Noble/Jedi Councilor

Str 13, Con 14, Siz 14, Int 14, Pow 14, Dex 13, App 15, Edu 14

HP 14, Move 10

Weapon: lightsaber 30%/30%, blaster pistol 40%, Grapple 45%, Brawl 45%

Skills: Appraise 43%, Bargain 32%, Bluff 33%, Computer Use 12%, Etiquette 41%, Knowledge (Firrerre) 29%, Knowledge (Jedi lore) 17%, Knowledge (Sith lore) 25%, Language Basic 70%, Language Firrerreo 42%, Persuade 79%, Sense 46%, Spot 41% (Intimidate +7 - maybe a +7% bonus on persuasion)

Force Skills: (can be converted as skills - BP 0% is assumed here) Affect Mind 40%, Empathy 28%, Force Grip 24%, Force Stealth 28%, Friendship 28%, Move Object 28%, See Force 32%

Equipment: Lightsaber, personal transport

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Not Converted

everything star wars specific including Weapons; Feats: Force-Sensitive; Force Feats: Alter, Control, Deflect Blasters, Sense.