[Rq-rules] nudging conversations about the rules --

[Simon Phipp]

David Gordon:

> I'm interested in hearing from anybody who has used RQ or BRP rules in an
> SF
> setting.  I'm working with Chaosium to produce an SF set of BRP rules.
> These would be generic rules that could be applied to any background.  At
> present I have the Ringworld RPG rules to go by and hope to have a boiled
> down version of the new DBRP rules to work with.

Have you had a look at Other Suns? It's a far better BRP-style game than
Ringworld, which seemed very bloated to me. Other Suns is far quicker to
play, although Ringworld is more in line with RQ3 than OS, which is more
similar to RQ2, if I remember correctly.

Are you keeping the incredibly complicated skill trees from Ringworld? They
were always good for a laugh - "What happens when I press the Green Button on
this console?", "Well, have you got the Console Knowledge - Flight Systems -
Fighter Craft - Pilot skill?" (OK, skill names made up, but you get the
drift).

It has always confused me as to why Sci-Fi games are treated so differently
to Fantasy games using BRP. Basically, the BRP system is good for all kinds
of games, with a few tweaks regarding magic, psionics, travel etc.

Basically, everyone has characteristics, hit points, movement, hit locations,
armour, weapons and skills. Skill resolution is the same whether you are an
Aslan using a blaster, a minotaur using an axe or a Sith Lord using a
lightsabre. Weapons do damage, armour protects, you can parry or dodge and so
on. After all, the Eternal Champion games use a variant of BRP (admittedly
not as good as RQ but what is?) for its varied settings and they work just
fine. 

What is different is campaign/world-specific rather than generic.
So, you would need stats, but not necessarily new rules, for:
1. New species (including new aliens, or men with funny masks)
2. New weapons (blasters, lightsabres etc)
3. New powers (psionics, new magic systems)
4. New skills (Astrophysics, Computer Use etc)
5. Hyperspace rules (These are different for every Sci-Fi setting)
6. Ship Stats (including rules for ship-to-ship combat, movement etc)

Then, all you need is a detailed writeup og the game setting and voila! It's
easy, really :-)

See Ya

Simon