I have been rereading the original Magic World and remembering how much fun we had with RQ 2e before the Glorantha canon wankery drove our crew away. I've been a Chaosium customer since its earliest years - especially CoC and Stormbringer, and there's always been lots of good (and some less than good) about their house system. Of course, in recent years, we've seen other D100 games such as Mythras and OpenQuest as well.

I know we have several big fans of BRP/D100 games on this forum, and many who haven't played any of these games. There's so much jabber about OSR / D&D games over the years, but Chaosium keeps chugging along as do the other D100 publishers.  

What do you think are the best selling points of BRP/D100 games? What draws you in?

Do you have any hesitations in recommending them to others? If so, why?

What's the common issues that new players to these games experience? What are the common misconceptions?

If you are not a BRP/D100 player, what's kept you from trying them out?

I've had players claim that they will only play in a game that uses a bell curve system for character generation! I've had people who claim that they prefer rolling a D20 for actions/events rather than d% even though the resulting value has virtually the same effect. Possibly these are down to a mental inability to cope with larger numbers, mind you I have a player who has trouble adding two or three d6's together due to his inability to grok numbers.

As far as selling the game I think it's the setting that sells any game but the huge variety of d100 based games makes it very easy to mix and match bits from various sources to get a very close  fit for the style of game to match the setting. You can ramp things up or down with overall hp versus distributed hp for example to vary the book-keeping necessary.

I'll always suggest using a d100 system over d20 mostly because of the connotations that a D20 system brings with it - mostly player assumptions about system for example.

Common  issues tend to be around the blackjack resolution system (highest roll under skill wins) and that low is a critical/special versus 00 is a fumble.

Quote from: Hermes Serpent;957502I've had players claim that they will only play in a game that uses a bell curve system for character generation!

I don't see how that's an issue for BRP.  At least in every version I've seen so far, humans roll their stats on either 3d6 or 2d6+6.

I was using that as an example of irrational fears or worries regarding mechanics.  These people wouldn't play a PbtA game as it didn't use 3d6 to generate characters. I've sat next to one player earlier this year who derided the DCC game we were playing  because it didn't only use a 'standard' set of polyhedrals and had some extra dice and used them in a 'dice chain' for varying effects. People are odd about gaming things outside their comfort zone and that zone can be uncomfortably small.

Quote from: Spinachcat;957499What do you think are the best selling points of BRP/D100 games? What draws you in?

It's a game system that strikes a very neat balance between complexity and verisimilitude. It's also one that hinges on almost no "setting assumptions" and can be easily modded (skill list granularity, hit locations or no hit locations, HP calculation, etc.) the better to reflect the setting, which is why Mythras/RQ6 is my go-to game for fantasy settings that don't necessarily fit D&D's assumptions.

Quote from: Spinachcat;957499Do you have any hesitations in recommending them to others? If so, why?

If you want a comic book take on violence, where larger-than-life heroes cleanly dispose of their opposition at little or no cost to themselves, look elsewhere. My BRP games tend towards brutality and grit, and usually look more like a Norse saga than the average fantasy novel.

Quote from: Spinachcat;957499What's the common issues that new players to these games experience? What are the common misconceptions?

Do not assume building a combat-oriented PC means you will not die in combat! Even the mightiest of warriors can die shanked by a lucky goblin.

In my RQ3 campaign, back in the day, I started to feel quite strongly that the system rewarded cheaters a bit too much.  I know, you can cheat in just about any game but there were players who would miraculously make experience rolls on 90+ skills session after session and they seemed to always be the ones who could always pull a critical hit off at just the right moment.  I suspect they were flip flopping their rolls but it could have been cheater dice too.

Quote from: The Butcher;957529If you want a comic book take on violence, where larger-than-life heroes cleanly dispose of their opposition at little or no cost to themselves, look elsewhere. My BRP games tend towards brutality and grit, and usually look more like a Norse saga than the average fantasy novel.

I have seen this before, but I disagree a bit on this one. Creating larger than life heroes is super easy if you ask me. OK maybe some options for superhero games are missing (so you need to house rule a bit), but you can easily run games as a bunch of over the top super powerful barbarians a la Conan. I have done this myself. I picked various options from the BRP book (similar to the rules in Stormbringer) in a game directly inspired by Kull and Conan stories, and we had a massive blast.

A lot of experience with Mythras in the last year or two for me. I absolutely love it.

One of the things I like about it is that it is possible to build exactly the character you want without a lot of extra baggage. A lot of this is a product of it being classless, and there are other systems that can do this. But my group recently switched back to 5e and I am chaffing under the lack of granularity a bit.

I really love that shield and spear is a strong option. In Mythras, at least, it covers all of the reach space, protects most of your body, grants a thrown weapon option, can do above average damage with Impale, can knock back with a Bash, can stun locations. It feels like these are both getting the attention they deserve without forcing you into some sort of hyper specialized role.

I love that the system as a whole is extremely modular. You can take bits out and add bits in without very much impact on anything else. You can leverage work from 30 years ago easily, or from some other variant, and by and large, it just works with little effort. I might liken it to cooking, vs many other systems baking.

Quote from: Spinachcat;957499If you are not a BRP/D100 player, what's kept you from trying them out?

D100 roll results are too random.

Quote from: The Butcher;957529If you want a comic book take on violence, where larger-than-life heroes cleanly dispose of their opposition at little or no cost to themselves, look elsewhere. My BRP games tend towards brutality and grit, and usually look more like a Norse saga than the average fantasy novel.

As Trond correctly pointed out, this is more of a problem of the traditional, "pure Chaosium" versions of the game - RQ2, RQ3, Stormbringer, the BGB, CoC, etc. The versions derived from the "Mongoose fork" are much more likely to let you run "larger than life" heroes., and feel like a Conan or John Carter novel. This is, of course, a feature and not necessarily a bug, as the extreme lethality of classic BRP combat adds to the sense of authenticity.

Quote from: RosenMcStern;957558As Trond correctly pointed out, this is more of a problem of the traditional, "pure Chaosium" versions of the game - RQ2, RQ3, Stormbringer, the BGB, CoC, etc. The versions derived from the "Mongoose fork" are much more likely to let you run "larger than life" heroes., and feel like a Conan or John Carter novel. This is, of course, a feature and not necessarily a bug, as the extreme lethality of classic BRP combat adds to the sense of authenticity.

I can concur with this, as far as Mythras and the Mythras-derived Classic Fantasy go. In the latter, an increased amount of luck points and smart expenditure by the players made it less lethal, as critical hits were by and large mitigated, and big damage rolls were rerolled, or neutered by heavier armor.

I have no worthwhile comment on this, except to say my next character will be named Boonzin Bains. :-)

Here's how I did it for my heroic Conan/Kull -inspired game:

Player character stats are all 2D6+6 (or some point buy system that gives higher than average 3D6 stats but somewhat lower than 2d6+6, I think I gave them a choice)

Give them a good amount of points to buy skills, I think I used 400 points. Tell them which skills are not appropriate to the setting of course, and ask them to develop a character story/background as they are allocating points. Set a starting cap to, say, 90 or 95% (including stat bonus) on any given skill, and expect them to actually go that high on their weapon skills and some other important skills. That is unless you want to use skills above 100%, which I just thought was too much of a mess.

Design opponents that seem nasty and dangerous when you describe them, but who are rarely much above 50% in skill

Include some more difficult bad guys (bosses) who are designed  more-or less like the characters themselves, with some nasty magical tricks up their sleeve. We did not use hit locations in combat, but we did use the Major Wound table included in BRP. This kept things brutal and fast at the same time.

Sadly, we only got to play one of these games before I moved. The opponents were basically the serpent men from Howard's "The Shadow Kingdom", complete with a specific phrase that made them reveal their identity (luckily none of the players had read the story). It was great fun

As others have mentioned, the chargen in BRP/D100 games is a fast combo of random stats and chosen skills and spells. The classless aspect in RQ usually means everyone falls somewhere on the Fighter / Thief / Mage combo spectrum, but unless you're playing inexperienced 16 yr old noobs in old RQ, most D100 characters start nicely experienced.  

I have always loved how XP works in BRP/D100. For those who don't know, you get to roll over skills you used in game. Thus, its much easier to improve a low skill than a high skill. Also, the concept of "buying training" is built into most settings so you can trade gold for more skills. I found this concept adds to world creation because the concept of highly skilled teachers in various locales.

Also, spells are point based, so you cast a lot more often, which was always a big selling point to D&D players pre-3e.

Quote from: Hermes Serpent;957502I've had players claim that they will only play in a game that uses a bell curve system for character generation!

Wow. That's an oddly specific complaint.

Quote from: Hermes Serpent;957502I've had people who claim that they prefer rolling a D20 for actions/events rather than d% even though the resulting value has virtually the same effect.

I sometimes have that bias myself, but its from twitching when players who take too long to decide if 40 and 4 is 44 and if 44 is lower than 60%...every round.

There is a speed issue when I say "the Troll is AC 15" and they roll 16, or even 12 when they know their attack bonus is +6. BTW, this issue of player visual math recognition is why I often reconsider the old THAC0 charts.

Quote from: Hermes Serpent;957502Possibly these are down to a mental inability to cope with larger numbers, mind you I have a player who has trouble adding two or three d6's together due to his inability to grok numbers.

THIS is a growing issue I have seen increasing among gamers of all ages in the past 2 decades. It's why I am hesitant about running D6 and D10 games where players have to roll up multiple dice each round. I have been working on converting some favorite D6 stuff into a D6 "count successes" instead.  I ran L5R two years ago and that uses a handful of D10s and several players broke out phone calculators and fortunately somebody got a rolling app because 2 of the 6 players (with college degrees) were beyond useless counting dice pips up past 20.
 
Math skills have gone to shit.

Quote from: David Johansen;957532I suspect they were flip flopping their rolls but it could have been cheater dice too.

I've seen this repeatedly over the decades at FLGS game days and conventions with both BRP and Warhammer RPGs. It's why I ask for two colored D10s and people to declare tens / ones in advance. I greatly prefer those D10s marked 10, 20, 30 etc. 94 is always 49 with those people.

My solution?

If I smell a cheater, I throw in some extra monsters as reinforcements who go aggro on the cheater's PC. Of course, I am happy to roll all attacks / parries in the open.

2-3 more moderate opponents arriving in a mid-BRP battle is a world of shit.

Quote from: Shawn Driscoll;957541D100 roll results are too random.

This is an issue with Warhammer RPGs as well.  I've seen this concern before, especially from Traveller and GURPS fans where the 2D6 or 3D6 produces reliable averages, whereas D20 and D100 are "anything goes" with every dice toss.

Quote from: cranebump;957562my next character will be named Boonzin Bains. :-)

My good deed for the month is done!

Quote from: Shawn Driscoll;957541D100 roll results are too random.

With a 60% chance of success there is exactly a 60% chance of succeeding on D100.