In this episode, the first of our intermittent "System Spotlight" series, we focus on Chaosium's Basic Roleplaying system - both the generic core rules as well as touching on its many variations.
What do you think? Do you agree with our assessment of the merits of the BRP system? Do you hate the system? Tell us why!
And remember to call our Lake Geneva, WI, voicemail number (262-729-9774) or leave us a comment with questions or issues you'd like us to address in future episodes!
Thanks for listening!
Thanks for the wonderful podcast on BRP! This answered a lot of the questions that I had from my previous post, although by no means does this imply that you can/should move on, and I am very interested in more BRP thoughts and comments. Part of the appeal of BRP for me is the simplicity, however, it is also somewhat daunting as a new BRP GM. I come from a heavy Hero System gaming background and absolutely hated the crunch that you had to go through to prep for a game, make characters, or really go outside tried and true channels and the appeal of a simple d100 game is very strong. I guess a lot of my mental hang up is because I am expecting there to be more to do on my end as the GM than is really needed for BRP. I was certainly looking for more of a collaborative story telling vehicle, and am very glad I was directed to it by your blog. I am still working out what rules I want to use and which I don't. I did love the part about the use of sanity in a fantasy setting for encountering various creatures, which I will definitely put into place (One of my pet peeves is the 'been there, done that' field that players develop that is not necessarily appropriate in my mind for the style of role playing I like to run, and this may be a small mechanic to help nudge them in that direction.). Being on the edge of going from having a point to rambling; thanks again for the great post cast and I am eagerly awaiting the next episode.
ReplyDeleteYou make a good point about how BRP's lack of "crunch" to fall back on can feel a bit weird to GMs coming from higher crunch systems. We'll address that along with your previous points on our next episode. :)
DeleteI'm loving the show. This episode was very interesting; I've never known much about BRP beyond Call of Cthulhu.
ReplyDeleteI do have a question, or rather a request: would it be possible for you to increase the volume of your files? Your show is significantly quieter than any other podcast that I listen to, so much so that I sometimes have trouble hearing it over background noise even when the volume on my player is turned all the way up.
Thanks for the feedback! I'll fiddle around with the gain on our recording equipment, see if we can't get the volume up a bit. Glad you're enjoying the podcast anyway.
DeleteEveryone posting here feel free to continue making suggestions about the technical aspects of the podcast, we'll need your help and feedback to really hit our stride in achieving quality episodes in the future!
DeleteGreat episode! Heartily agree with all the positives you bring up! Skill check hunting is the only thing I ever had a few issues with. Very small issues.
ReplyDeleteExcellent podcast!
Yeah, some of my players joke about establishing a routine of 'circuit training' to power up skills complete with toting golf bags of various weapons that once they successfully strike or parry they drop and draw a different weapon type to make sure they maximize the most skills possible. It is all humor and they would never actually do it. My default assumption on whether or not a skill check is A) required and/or B) worthy of a possible skill upgrade is this; "If there is nothing at stake, there is no consequence for failure, or the players can take all of the time they need to succeed; they the answer is 'yes you can do it', but you get no skill check. The moment there is conflict, legitimate consequences for failure, or pressure to complete a task within a shorter than reasonable time frame, then roll the dice."
ReplyDeleteYeah I think you about nailed it on when to roll. That's an important point because sometimes people object to skills in general because of a mistaken impression that rolls are made for every little thing. Maybe that is more of an objection to DC's.
DeleteYou've definitely got a handle on how to run things, though it would be amusing, hypothetically, to see a group of medieval Casey Joneses walking into a tavern somewhere.
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