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Basic Roleplaying
 
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Basic Roleplaying
Publisher: Chaosium
by Edward K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/12/2023 17:50:26

Originally posted at www.throatpunchgames.com, a new idea every day!

Product- Basic Roleplaying System- Basic Roleplaying Producer- Chaosium Price- $15 here https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/24384/Basic-Roleplaying&affiliate_id=658618 TL; DR- Want to play Runequest in whatever world you want? 95%

Basics- Why not do EVERYTHING! Basic Roleplaying is Chaosium’s basic game design for their systems, with rules for a basic RPG and then additional rules to build out different type of games from magic spells, mutations, weapons, and combat actions.

Basic mechanic- This game uses the same percentile system as most of their products. Take the basic skill or attribute and try to roll under it. Attributes are your standard DnD ones, but then you multiply by 3 for hard checks or 5 for normal checks and attempt to roll under that value. Roll under and succeed!

Powers- Powers come in LOTS of varieties here. Mutations and super powers almost function like feats in other games. Magic, psychic abilities, and sorcery are more akin to spells in Call of Cthulhu with a character using power points.

Combat-Combat is a bit more advanced than Call of Cthulhu, but builds well and shows its influence on Runequest. In turn order, you do an action. Opposed rolls like attacks allow an opponent to do dodges or parries, but each dodge or parry has an escalating chance of failure. From there you consult a chart to see how hard you hit or miss.

Ok, thats the basics, let’s look at my thoughts!

Mechanics or Crunch- Do you like Runequest? I do, but it’s not my favorite. I prefer the simplicity of Call of Cthulhu for managing mechanics. Then again, you can’t get the gritty nature of combat like you do in Runequest. It’s much less “roll and check your percentage” and more “let’s compare skills/attributes, then check a chart,then maybe oppose roll” So, there is a trade off of what you want in the game. None of that is bad in any way, but how deep do you want the game to be? Some days you just want a simple ham sandwich and some days you want nine layers of flavor. Both are good at the right time. The one thing that I feel Call of Cthulhu misses is feats or character qualities. This has it, but I still don’t completely get what I want as its not just “You’re better at X or get a reroll with Y.” Sure its simple, but I would like that small thing to make this game just a hair closer to DnD’s bonuses. Overall, solid crunch that misses a few things by a just a bit. 4.5/5

Theme or Fluff- Theme is hard to judge here. This is the basic game, so its basically for everything. I feel its well done, but its also VERY general. But thats on purpose. If you wanted a high fantasy game or a superheroes game, this book would honestly work for both. It also has a bit of art and themes for both as well. 5/5

Execution- What’s here is good, but the book just needs a bit more pizazz. There is art, decent layout, the text reads easy, and there are hyperlinks because this is 2023. That said, the book is completely black and white all the way though, so even though I’m reading a book on a tablet it feels like I’m reading a hardcover in the 80s. That’s nitpicky, but that’s the worst I have to say. 4.75/5

Summary- How much you like this book comes down to how much you like how Chaosium handles games in general. Do you like percentile-based systems? Chaosium does it the best with Call of Cthulhu. I would argue the second best is Runequest. This book feels like the precursor to the latest edition of Runequest with lots of mechanics being identical between them. So, to find out if you like this book and system, just ask yourself “Do I want to play Runequest set in X?” If you want Runequest in a sci-fi setting, then this is a good book. If you want Runequest in Tolkien, then this would be a good book. I would turn down none of those, so I like this book. Still, want my feats and some color art, but for the price and all the things you get with it this is a fantastic general system to get into right away. 95%



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Basic Roleplaying
Publisher: Chaosium
by Brent I. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/24/2023 09:28:15

THis is the House system for Chaosium, and versions of this power all of their games past and present for the most part. It also is used in part by other games like Mythras RPG series.

There are a number of settings you can get that plays along with this, like "Mythic Iceland" or "Magic World" -- there are a lot of setting in the book as well.

I have played this system for decades, and it has a number of strengths - combat is swift and decisive, it is skill not level based. and characters have basically the same number of hit points, so have to role play more and pick battles carefully.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Basic Roleplaying
Publisher: Chaosium
by Marcus V. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/13/2023 12:17:04

This is my system of choice when I homebrew. Outside of the most recent starter set for CoC, I think this is the most clear way to teach someone the Chaosium D100 ruleset. Everything is organized into chapters so there's little flipping back and forth and the layout is focused on an explanation of terms, character creation, skill descriptions,power descriptions, and so on until you get to running games. There's very little fluff and no prose pages or setting specific information.

the examples used to illustrate spell casting are clear and concise.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Basic Roleplaying
Publisher: Chaosium
by Alberto I. L. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/13/2023 06:09:49

This book is a must in any serious RPG collection. I wish I could have a copy in POD. Art and layout are a bit outdated so it's a great chance for a new edition. We, BRPheads are legion. Good job Chaosium!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Basic Roleplaying
Publisher: Chaosium
by Gregory D. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/08/2012 13:04:40

I will be honest, this could have been better. It has no setting which for me is always a plus, however it also has more rules than needed. A lot of them are optional, yet I don't want to have to look at a matrix chart just to see if my character is stronger then another. The combat is very broken, but that adds more to the realism in my opinion. I tried a zombie survival game, and it went well, but all my players agreed that there where just too many rules needed to do the simplest of tasks. In all it is an okay system, not great, but not bad either. I just wished that chaosium would have made these rules a bit easier to understand.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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Basic Roleplaying
Publisher: Chaosium
by Frank M. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/20/2010 01:34:31

I'm not sure why the previous reviewer confused this product with the BRP Quickstart, but this product does contain 400+ pages of role-playing goodness. This book is a solid foundation for a DIY game, in any genre: fantasy, science-fiction, horror, historical, post-apocalyptic, or mashups yet to be devised.

The core system will be familiar to players of RuneQuest, Stormbringer, Call of Cthulhu, and nearly every other game Chaosium ever printed. However, the author has included a plethora of optional and variant rules culled from BRP's rich history, from hit locations and strike ranks to EDU and Sanity from Call of Cthulhu, to skill category bonuses and skills over 100%. (There's even a handy checklist of all optional rules for GMs to provide players.) On the paranormal side, the book presents two different magic systems ("magic" from Magic World and "sorcery" from Stormbringer), mutations, psychic powers, and super powers, Allegiance, and creatures from prehistory, mythology, and possible futures. Anyone who wants to emulate a specific game, e.g. Call of Cthulhu, can.

Granted, the book is a little weak on science-fiction, but SF is such a wide field that no reasonable-sized book can encompass them all and other genres too. Likewise, it doesn't contain every creature ever made, but it has common ones and enough examples to extrapolate from. Also, don't expect a detailed treatment of every genre and historical period ... but the GM section includes a rundown of broad historical periods. There's only so much that can fit into 400 pages, after all.

For a straightforward campaign in nearly any genre, this book is all you need. GMs with more specific or outre ideas might need to do a little work ... assuming they can't borrow from previous Chaosium RPGs, Mongoose's RuneQuest, or fanzines and websites, which use practically the same system.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Basic Roleplaying
Publisher: Chaosium
by Steven R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/15/2008 05:40:22

I have had this RPG book for some time have found it to be a very simple system to use. Things I like about BRP are the use of all the dice and the fast character creation. The system uses D100 or checks and the other dice for damage (similar to D20). Its simple making it useful for when the young and new players (with 16 pages its not very daunting read for a young player) or when the GM is away. It does require an experienced player to act as GM. What the system does not have is a Magic system or an extensive Monster section. This does mean that a GM has to do a lot of the work but If you like customising game systems it gives you a great start. I would like to see Chaosium Basic Roleplaying Creatures Book and Basic Roleplaying Magic Book available as a PDF download as these are not available in the UK.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Basic Roleplaying
Publisher: Chaosium
by Rene C. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/15/2007 10:45:29

Chaosium, since 1978, has been such a radical leap ahead in the evolutionary depuration of RPGs that it is comparable to having been able to use submarines and computers in the victorian age, while the rest of the world used, well, whatever they used in that age. Amongst one of the many revolutionary concepts developed by Chaosium since then, was a universal game system for all of their products. This book is the synthesized version of that system. It includes all you need to understand, play and adapt one of the best game systems ever devised to any world you may ever create, in barely 16 pages of text (plus the 2 covers). Well described and thoroughly exemplified this book is more than worth it's price. This book does not contain however a fully described world nor bestiary. This book is mainly for those who would like to build upon a set of outstanding rules framework. Chaosium system overview: Uses 7 characteristics (ranging 3-18). Skill based (percentages), so actions are resolved rolling d100. Uses all dice (d4, d6, d8, etc). Uses backgrounds during PC generation. No artificial restrictions for equipment or occupations.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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