BRP has a new champion.
Basic Roleplaying or the Big Gold Book, now has a new version after a long time in the wilderness. I am lucky enough to have a mint condition copy of the BGB and it is a favourite, but like everything in this world, not perfect.
The quickest of overview reviews;
It has all you need to play any genre, any way you would like, but it is dense and a little confusing to use thanks to the volume of information and the layout, which offers everything up front, which is to say, it does not have a core with obvious add-ons, but more of a cherry picker style of thing. There are things that help like a check list sheet and the reality that you can do as you want, even mid game if you want, no harm done, but at 400 pages, it needs some GM awareness and application.
It has almost every idea from every D100 game up to it’s printing and by definition most ideas from subsequent games. Want super heroes, mutants, mages, sorcerers, psychics? All are there in “solid start” form, with easy rules for expanding, as well as direct or close compatibility with all d100 support games and for maximum variety, you can mix these all together.
The new version thanks to some pairing down, re-writing, smaller text and a generally tighter delivery cuts that down to a little over 250 pages, with little lost.
It is not the BGB now, but more of the medium sized Book Of Colour Goodness (BCG) being a maybe slightly rushed delivery of Chaosium’s new standards, i.e. good stuff. It is a couple of years old also, so probably settled now.
Do I need it? The BGB is for me decently familiar, it sits perfectly with my sweet spot of D100 systems (CoC 5e), I have genre specific books on most periods of interest and even other generic and interlaced systems with similar scope like Mythras, which could be argued is even more consistent from game to game (The BCG is not even perfectly in line with CoC, Chaosium’s primary game).
It does however make me happy to see the only one of the original RPG systems that is still basically unchanged still evolving, so yeah, I will grab a copy.
As a unifying toolbox, a less precious look at consolidated mechanics and a cleaner, tighter way of accessing generic gaming than the older tome, it appeals more than my other option of Savage Worlds (SWADE), which I still have.
SWADE is fine, but lacks any connection to my other favourites and no matter how good it gets, it is just not as sensible and logical as D100. Fast fun and furious it may be, but lite, pulpy and a little too systemically clever it will also always be.
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Another option and one that seems to be writing itself at the moment, is my own.
Characteristics I have settled on are;
Strength and Agility; being gross and fine motor skills
Endurance and Dexterity; for long and twitch muscles
Reason and Intuition; the logical and creative/instinctive sides of the brain
Will and Charisma; a person’s character expressed as internal strength and projected personality
These are paired so that when generated, the rolled dice (6d6) are split usually into 3+3 (GM may allow other splits with a good back story) as the player wishes. Unlikely combinations of extremely good opposites are rare, but also there is the ability to avoid very poor results.
It also allows some player pay-in as to how they favoured some things or were naturally blessed as the players desire when growing up.
From these, almost any derivative of two combined can be used as a skill or test base and above all, they all make sense.
Skills are a base of 2x chrs (6-36%) + ten levels of d6% (0-60%). These are bought during advancement or training at 3 pts for intensive (3d6 take the best), 2 pts for trained (2d6 > best) and 1 pt for hobby or “on the job” (1d6).
Each turning point (or year) adds an amount of points (TBC).
Some skills have automatic familiarity based on culture (= base), others need to be learned to be used or used efficiently. Once rolled, that is it, no re-do’s so it is relatively easy to get ten levels in a skill (10 pts), but if taken as a hobby it is generally less efficient (+30-35%). Mastery requires intensive training and the help of other experts for +50-60% skill.
Learning from experience is based on a number of advancement tests (+1%) allowed after (some) critical results under pressure and limited per turning point.
Tests are;
Standard/advantaged opposed 2d10 > read as desired (this applies a bell curve)
Challenging 2d10 > read as pre-nominated (most combat and un-advantaged opposed tests (no curve-flat probability)
Perilous/disadvantaged opposed 3d10 > take the worst pairing (negative curve)
Extreme use 4d10 > take the worst 2 etc (extremely negative biased curve)
No mods are needed, just “flipping” the dice.
Doubles are critical failures or successes, the level of this is measured by the “height”. Very low critical successes are fairly tame, higher ones become legendary, as many remember the day the great manoeuvre, (a 99% success) was witnessed, but conversely low skilled characters are capable of 22% fumbles, which will not end well.
It is a little convoluted, maybe even too much for some, but I am making this for me, as a slave for all the little things that annoy me about other similar systems.
I like;
D100 roll under systems, but do not like some of the implementations of said system. The critical roll, the fumble etc need to be aligned with user skill, the skill to allow for better results being possible, advancements to be incremental, but real time.
A curve should be added or tests made in layers, to remove the hard win/loose some games are guilty of.
I love the Traveller career system, but not the grind of it sometimes. I much prefer to able to tell a story semi-abstractly. Character rolls a double 6 of two “hobby” dice and fumbles their actual career training might mean they love their life, but not their job.
I have always preferred the 2x chr as a base for skills system, but often cringe at the odd application of often limited or oddly named chrs.
I hate games that allow characters to easily go over 100% chance. The chrs used can mitigate that as can limits to skills.
“00” should be nothing-no result, because 100% needs to be effectively impossible and a null result is needed. This dead space means even the amazing world champion can fail, but not spectacularly. If fate points allow a re-roll, then that becomes such an unlikely event for a 99% skill master but still possible (that would be amazing).
Anyway, book ordered, so I can keep going with mine or just use the many, many D100 options I have available to me and work with (or change) the systems.