What was once a novel idea is now one of the most abused features of the BRP system. I'm speaking, of course, of the Experience Check method used by BRP for player character improvement.
In theory, Experience Checks sound like a rational game mechanic. You only advance in a skill - or area of study - by using it, right? Broad skill and level gain are not realistic approaches. Unfortunately, from my experience, this mechanic doesn't really survive actual play. When you've got that carrot as a reward, it's hard to resist the impulse - as a player - to get the most out of it. Who doesn't want a more capable character? As a result, this mechanic can lead to sessions where players will try to have their characters perform as many skill tasks as possible, for the chance to improve in as many skills as possible.
Some may argue that this mechanic does have a balancing factor: the more skilled a character gets the less likelihood that an Experience Check is going to lead to any skill growth. But, that doesn't change the fact that Check Hunting will still be appealing during a session.
In most of the BRP campaigns I run these days, I use the Improvement Roll mechanic that was introduced in Mongoose's Runequest 2. Basically, this rule states the GM will award a number of Improvement Rolls - at the conclusion of a scenario - which players can spend on the skills they choose. The character's Charisma modifier adjusts the number of Improvement Rolls, and "reflects the relationship the character has with his community, peers and colleagues, or, if CHA is particularly low, the difficulty of attempting to improve one’s capabilities without the assistance of others". I'm quite fond of this approach. It eliminates Check Hunting, and also places some importance on the Charisma stat - beyond social interactions. If necessary, the GM can just provide a little guidance with IRs: "please spend these only on skills that you actually used in the scenario".
As I mentioned a few posts back, I made the decision to use the Call of Cthulhu rules-as-written for my Day of the Beast campaign. I wanted to give the game system a chance to stand on its own legs, rather than putting a great deal of effort into houseruling. In a perfect world, I'd prefer to just point to a rules set and say "we're using this" - not have a few pages of houserules as an addendum.
But, it's not a perfect world, and I am not a content GM/Keeper/Referee that I can resist the impulse to shape the game system in the way that it's going to appeal to me. There are times - in play - when rules issues occur that make me take note of a system's weaknesses.
In the next few posts, I'm going to go discuss some aspects of CoC's system... and probably why some of them drive me nuts. And drive me to houserule them.
We have another session tonight of Call of Cthulhu - probably the last session for the Haunted House scenario. The Investigators have one night remaining at the Old Tannerhill House and some tough decisions to make.
Through seances, the Investigators have determined that there are at least 3 spirits occuping the house - for good or ill. 2 of the spirits are children that met with a cruel fate: one likely the victim of homicide, and the other committed suicide. The third is an adult - apparently a 200 year old female ghost with strong religious principles. This ghost has claimed to be the protector of the house, seeking to keep it safe from the "spawn of Satan". It's not clear, though, whether this is truth or the skewed perspective of the ghost.
A fourth spirit has also entered the mix. There are rumors among the townsfolk of Corbis Woods that the spirit of a witch also inhabits the house, and is to blame for the infertile land in its proximity. There hasn't been much tangible evidence of this ghost, however. One of the ghosts has spoken of her, but there are no discovered remains or belongings of this ghost with which to perform a seance.
So, herein lies the crux of the situation. Richard Carrington, the owner of the Old Tannerhill House wants this 'problem' resolved. The seances have been both intriguing (and frightening), but Richard wants Paul Lemond - and the investigators - to rid the house of the spirits. Exorcise any malignant spirits, and release the others from their earthly ties. But which spirit(s) are the problem? And what consequences will occur from exorcising the wrong ghost(s)?
I've been talking for some time about compiling a manifesto of tweaks, and additions, to the Call of Cthulhu rpg rules. There are times when I get so frustrated by what I consider to be CoC's archaic game design that it compels me to make changes. And, I get so inspired by 'newer' BRP rules offerings - from the BRP Gold Book and MRQ2 - that I want to inject some of their features into CoC.
For a time, I was obsessed with compiling this 'manifesto' as my own, interpreted, core book: blending rules passages from CoC, BRP, and MRQ2 by cutting and pasting into my own .doc; editing and 'laying out' the results; and, then, sending a completed .pdf off to be printed and spiral-bound. (For my own table-side purposes, of course).
I've started and stopped on this project so many times over the years. Some of that is due to free-time restrictions; some of it has to do with not feeling eager to edit an extensive document. Maybe it's laziness, too - there are other rpg projects that I play around with, too, and rewriting CoC has never really left the backburner.
I was thinking about my manifesto this week, and chatted with a friend about presentation options. After some discussion - and browsing through my compiled document last night - I think I'm going to take a different approach. I think that I'm just going to develop a few small, separate pdfs with the nuts-and-bolts of chargen, task resolution, and system tweaks, rather than one doc with nuts-bolts-fluff altogether. For the players, I'll just offer a few flowcharts to help them along the way. The system will still be straightforward enough that tons of detail won't be necessary.
In my 1920s CoC campaign, the first few sessions have taken place in a haunted house in rural New Hampshire. The investigators traveled to a backwater town for the chance to participate in a seance. A real seance, conducted by a medium who apparently has legitimate abilities to channel the dead. And, the investigators got their money's worth after having not one - but two - seances.
It quickly became clear to the investigators that this wasn't going to be a casual experience of talking with someone's dead aunt about the weather in 1890. Some terrible things have taken place in the house - events that stretch back a few hundred years to Puritanical times. There are indications of murder, suicide, and spiritual possession - heck, one investigator was briefly possessed by an angry spirit after the first seance. There are also clear signs of supernatural activity: unnatural coldness in one room; a cellar door that impossibly resisted attempts to open it; a carpentry nail in the cellar - driven into a load-bearing beam - that emits blood from no apparent source.
Next session will be pretty interesting. It's likely that the investigators (and by extention, the players) feel like the situation is starting to spiral out of control. Who knows what other surprises this house holds, or how the spirits will manifest their anger, despair, and other emotions. The investigators have already experienced some shocking things (lost Sanity) - I'm curious what steps they'll take to deal with the situation. Or whether they'll high-tail it out of New Hampshire.
Fairly recently, I've taken an interest in exploring options for Star Trek gaming. I've been inspired - Netflixing the old Original Series, as well as the more recent ST: Enterprise series that stars Scott Bakula. The early era of ST has always appealed to me - I was never much a fanboy of Next Generation, DS9, or Voyager.
10 years ago, I owned Last Unicorn Games' Original Series rpg. And, while it looked shiny and was a great resource for setting detail, the system seemed pretty lackluster. I managed to run one session of it, and the system felt very average. (That campaign/adventure self-destructed when one player decided to get drunk and be disruptive. That's surely not a fault of LUG's rpg - but it put any further plans to run ST on hold, indefinitely).
A few years later, I'd heard of the Star Trek rpg from Decipher, but I never picked it up. At that time, I was too focused on running Call of Cthulhu, and the occassional d20 game, to explore Trek gaming. I'd heard that the system was an improvement over the LUG version, but that it was horribly disorganized.
A couple weeks ago, I started looking back into options for ST gaming. I browsed a few forum threads, read a few blogs and fansites, and took in the pluses and minuses of different game systems for running Trek. I started getting intrigued by what I'd heard of the original ST rpg, produced back in the early 80s by FASA. FASA Trek used a d100 system, with a rather tactical, and deadly, combat system - and it had a range of options when it came to starship combat. At that point, I decided to set some money aside and track down a copy of the boxed set in as good a condition as I could find. (Thank you, Noble Knight, for having a copy in really damn good - unpunched - condition).
The Deluxe 2nd edition boxed set of FASA Trek is loaded with all kinds of goodies: 3 books dedicated to the rpg-play; a detailed tactical combat simulator sourcebook; a black hexmap and loads of cardboard starship counters; Klingon and Federation starship recognition manuals. This game is packed full of great content. I've only spent a few hours digging through the rpg content at this point - I wanted to get a grasp of the system before delving into tactical starship combat. And, I was surprised to find a pretty damn solid d100 system inside. Sure, it's rather old school, and gives some decided advantages to Vulcans, but task resolution is quite intuitive, and its lifepath method of chargen is inspired. (It reminds you a little of Traveller, except with less randomness). The combat/conflict system is pretty involved - using action points to handle movement, as well as timing, attacking, defending, and reactions. But, it's really no more complex than what I've seen in d20, or 4e, or other tactically-minded rpgs.
If I manage to run Star Trek in the next year or 2, I'd definitely use FASA Trek to do it. It seems intuitive to run, and could probably be easily tweaked/house-ruled with parts of BRP, if necessary. In fact, FASA ST may have an influence on future BRP campaigns that I run.
