BRP The Edition Wars To End All Wars

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AsenRG said:
Oh...welcome to the Pub, Dean! I just started reading your SRDs, and it's very solid work:thumbsup:!
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Thanks a bunch ... a lot of stuff CR has put out over the past ~18 months is designed as raw materials for home-brewers, small publishers, and scenario writers in search of open platforms for releasing their content. Seems like quite a few folks like that congregate in this here Pub (great to see!)
 
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Kobayashi said:
A bit of a shameless plug: I just finished my own take on d100 systems. I love them and I find them well-suited for beginners but using hundred pages-long books for such an intuitive ruleset is not my thing. So here you go:

DIE A HUNDRED TIMES

It fits on two pages, it's free and it's released under a creative commons license so everybody can have fun with it.
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think you are missing a link there brother
 
Kobayashi said:
A bit of a shameless plug: I just finished my own take on d100 systems. I love them and I find them well-suited for beginners but using hundred pages-long books for such an intuitive ruleset is not my thing. So here you go:

DIE A HUNDRED TIMES

It fits on two pages, it's free and it's released under a creative commons license so everybody can have fun with it.
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As a fan of elegant design, I love this. Being used to Call of Cthulhu etc, at first I kept looking for the ability scores ("where's this Brawn and Willpower it keeps referring to"?) until I realized there are no ability scores / characteristics / attributes or whatever, nor are they needed! Awesome.
 
cthulhu_reborn said:
Thanks a bunch ... a lot of stuff CR has put out over the past ~18 months is designed as raw materials for home-brewers, small publishers, and scenario writers in search of open platforms for releasing their content. Seems like quite a few folks like that congregate in this here Pub (great to see!)
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Yes, indeed - you're in the right new pond:grin:!

Also, apologies for missing your reply. I guess I got lost in the notifications...

Kobayashi said:
A bit of a shameless plug: I just finished my own take on d100 systems. I love them and I find them well-suited for beginners but using hundred pages-long books for such an intuitive ruleset is not my thing. So here you go:

DIE A HUNDRED TIMES

It fits on two pages, it's free and it's released under a creative commons license so everybody can have fun with it.
Click to expand...
Yes, the intuitiveness is indeed one of the greatest strengths of d100.
 
Mankcam Mankcam I own the revised third edition of the Arkham book, titled H.P. Lovecraft's Arkham, that had three of the original four scenarios and new art and new layout.

As nice as this current new edition looks, it has me wondering if it isn't a bit too much. Still, the new Lovecraft Country books may become an exception to my intention of not picking up any more books for 7E, especially since they will include a new Innsmouth book, of which I've not been able to get my hands on any earlier edition.
 
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3rik said:
Mankcam Mankcam I own the revised third edition of the Arkham book, titled H.P. Lovecraft's Arkham, that had three of the original four scenarios and new art and new layout.

As nice as this current new edition looks, it has me wondering if it isn't a bit too much. Still, the new Lovecraft Country books may become an exception to my intention of not picking up any more books for 7E, especially since they will include a new Innsmouth book, of which I've not been able to get my hands on any earlier edition.
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I have the reprint of the original Arkham Unveiled, which includes the scenarios as well.
Not sure if that is the same edition as yours or not. From the spidery text font it looks like late CoC 5E era to CoC 6E era

This new edition does look great, and exceptionally very well detailed.

However I also have some reservations regarding whether if highly detailed settings are actually more desirable than loose, vague settings.
Whilst immersive, it potentially leads to less handwaving and creativity on behalf of the GM.

I'm starting to wonder if Chaosium books are falling victim to this, as I feel it's the same thing with RQG.
The new RQG books are really great in terms of art and detail, but somehow it feels there is much less space for GMs to leave their individual stamp upon the setting, unlike during the RQ2/RQ3 era. I do not think the authors intend this, but its hard to shake the feeling at times.

I've been a hardcore BRP fan for years, but at pressent I am running 13th Age - part of the reason I like it is because The Dragon Empire setting is presented in broad brushstrokes, with the authors encouraging the reader to allow their own group to fill things in as they go.
There is alot to be said for this, as it is what attracted many of us to be GMs in the first place.

So yeah, one wonders if this new Arkham book can be considered overly-detailed.
I don't have the book, so I'm not sure if it is, but it could run that risk. Personally I probably don't mind the Call of Cthulhu being highly detailed, it lends itself to this much more than RuneQuest.

However it still looks like an impressive book.
 
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3rik said:
Mankcam Mankcam I own the revised third edition of the Arkham book, titled H.P. Lovecraft's Arkham, that had three of the original four scenarios and new art and new layout.

As nice as this current new edition looks, it has me wondering if it isn't a bit too much. Still, the new Lovecraft Country books may become an exception to my intention of not picking up any more books for 7E, especially since they will include a new Innsmouth book, of which I've not been able to get my hands on any earlier edition.
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I don't know how it is going with the location books, but I have been pleased that edition to edition the settings (time period) have not been simply minor updates. Looking at the second and third ed Cthulhu by Gaslight, the two books are similar in size, but each contains quite a lot of it own unique material making it well worth owning both.
 
Mankcam said:
I don't have the book, so I'm not sure if it is, but it could run that risk. Personally I probably don't mind the Call of Cthulhu being highly detailed, it lends itself to this much more than RuneQuest.
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Personally I think detail is always good. How good depends on which detail of course, and how much you're paying for it, but that's another question! But I sense your anxiety here is the type of detail that's really Gregging/Jeffing. "This is now like this, and has always been like this, throw out your old books and indeed idle thoughts you might have been planning on posting on BRP.org!" That's pretty harmless in CoC because it's basically a 'modern(ish) fantasy' in that it's set in the alt-RW, and people are pretty confident that they know what the RW's like, and how they might approach it in fiction, interactive and otherwise. "OK my fine dude, your Paris might be like that, but mine's different, and besides, we'll always have Nantes."

When you're doing it with a wholly fictional "high fantasy" world, it risks landing differently. "Oh no, I'm doing Glorantha/Tekumel/other wrong!!!" But people should take it in the same spirit, IMO.
 
Alai said:
Personally I think detail is always good. How good depends on which detail of course, and how much you're paying for it, but that's another question! But I sense your anxiety here is the type of detail that's really Gregging/Jeffing. "This is now like this, and has always been like this, throw out your old books and indeed idle thoughts you might have been planning on posting on BRP.org!" That's pretty harmless in CoC because it's basically a 'modern(ish) fantasy' in that it's set in the alt-RW, and people are pretty confident that they know what the RW's like, and how they might approach it in fiction, interactive and otherwise. "OK my fine dude, your Paris might be like that, but mine's different, and besides, we'll always have Nantes."

When you're doing it with a wholly fictional "high fantasy" world, it risks landing differently. "Oh no, I'm doing Glorantha/Tekumel/other wrong!!!" But people should take it in the same spirit, IMO.
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That's all pretty much on target, heh heh
 
Alai said:
Personally I think detail is always good. How good depends on which detail of course, and how much you're paying for it, but that's another question! But I sense your anxiety here is the type of detail that's really Gregging/Jeffing. "This is now like this, and has always been like this, throw out your old books and indeed idle thoughts you might have been planning on posting on BRP.org!" That's pretty harmless in CoC because it's basically a 'modern(ish) fantasy' in that it's set in the alt-RW, and people are pretty confident that they know what the RW's like, and how they might approach it in fiction, interactive and otherwise. "OK my fine dude, your Paris might be like that, but mine's different, and besides, we'll always have Nantes."

When you're doing it with a wholly fictional "high fantasy" world, it risks landing differently. "Oh no, I'm doing Glorantha/Tekumel/other wrong!!!" But people should take it in the same spirit, IMO.
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Plus you can back up your additions with real world and reality based fictional data. No RPG book can match the detail of reality, and the breadth of historically related fiction. If a London guide doesn't have some neat tid bit, a neighborhood, a club, an individual etc that you stumbled onto or you want to include some fictional aspects from Sherlock's or Dickens' London it is different than adding some details to a wholly fictional setting and runs into the issue of being dismissed as "fanfic".
Even something like Arkham which is a fictional setting is still grounded in the real world New England, so the real world benefit still mostly apply.

People always say "do what you like", but this overlooks that RPGs are a group activity. Getting buy in from everybody at the table is kind of important for long term harmony.
 
Toadmaster said:
People always say "do what you like" [...]
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They do, but sometimes it's very much in the mode of "do what you like, but". And sometimes the "but" parts gets a little intense. Thus it's been perceived to be in RQland for a while. With CoC, I don't think there's the urge at Chaosium (either HQ or East) to launch those sorts of salvos, and if they did, they'd land very differently in any case.
 
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Quick query:
"Did anyone ever see the RQ3 Genertela book produced by Games Workshop back in the 1980s?"

I only ever saw it in the Avalon Hill boxes, and never knew that it was in the Games Workshop hardcover line
Not until I stumbled across this image
1712740659707.png
Internet Archive Open Library

The same image shows up on Amazon thru a French seller called Walletkite, and I'm a bit dubious:
GW RQ3 Genertela

I can't find any more details on it anywhere, including references to internal art and whatnot
Does anyone know of it's actual existence?
 
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Mankcam said:
Quick query:
"Did anyone ever see the RQ3 Genertela book produced by Games Workshop back in the 1980s?"
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It's not GW, it's Oriflam, a French publisher. Pretty sure it's a French-language edition too. But I do see the family resemblance with the GW ones! The internal art was reputedly pretty good for 'back in the day' -- especially as compared with the atrocities AH were perpetrating.

Dieux_de_Glorantha_Genertela_RuneQuest_Oriflam.jpg
 
I do confirm these are the french editions of the books. The Genertela book came with a cool map as well. At the time the Avalon Hill boxed set was so expensive that the cheapest GW edition was a godsend. After that we finally got a french edition but I think the GW edition opened up the game to a whole new audience at the time.

EDIT: and there was no GW Glorantha book as far as I know. More details in this article.
 
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Oh wow thanks, that makes alot of sense as the seller is French as well
I think the being a hardcover with alot of blue in the picture just made me connect it to the GW editions for some reason
Both of you, many thanks for getting back to me so quickly
Mystery solved!
 
Raleel said:
google translate says that it is named the Danish word for "Generic", which feels like a french slight!
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Google also brings up the Mirriam-Webster Dictionary which says that the Middle French word Oriflamme means a 'symbol of courage', which was used on flags and other banners during medieval times. I reckon ORIFLAM could likely be a reference to Oriflamme, it makes sense.
Oriflamme
 
Fenris-77 said:
View attachment 80578
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If you're somewhat discombobulated at that text, bear in mind it's not an introductory or even definitional one. It's a random entry on their "not in the street where it might frighten the horses" website. (The WoD name is a reference to the water/merfolk god of "secret wisdom". If you're not willing to go to the bottom of a bottomless ocean to find out, you're not trying hard enough.) Contents are for the likes of Glorantha nerrrrrds like me super-interesting, but a bit of a mishmash.

In more down-to-earth terms, Genertela is the world's large northern continent, where most of the well-known stuff in the game(s) happens. Home to the "Western world", "middle-eastern" and "far-eastern" cultural analogues, and their corresponding religious tropes.
 
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