Basic Roleplaying System
From 1d4chan
The Basic Roleplaying System (usually shortened to BRP)
is a roleplaying game made by Chaosium. It originated with
Runequest and is most commonly known as the system
behind Call of Cthulhu, having grown out of the two to
become a Generic system of its own. Despite the name it is
anything but Basic in terms of the metric shitton of optional
rules available. It is not however as much of a clusterfuck
choice-wise as the other generic universal role playing
system. If D&D, and GURPS are the jocks of the neckbeard
world, BRP is the weird kid nobody really knows. Its not
popular, but it has a good amount of extra books if you're
into that sort of thing, though you can play pretty much any
kind of setting with just the corebook.
Contents
1 The System
1.1 Combat
2 Other Stuff The average PC holding all his loot.
3 External Links
The System
The system is a roll under, percentile (d100) system. Players start by rolling 3d6 to determine base attributes
(2d6+6 for INT, SIZ, and EDU if it's used); Size, Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Power,
Appearance, and optionally Education (Though Appearance is rarely used and can be the dump stat. Expect a
world full of fuck-ugly characters that look like Sloth from Goonies. Much like any character generated in
Oblivion). They then choose their skills by selecting a Profession (read: class, but with no real restrictions)
which are basically skill templates and assigning skill points to those skills, and then throwing points into non-
profession skills however they like. Expect people to spend 30-45 minutes explaining why their Ranger needs
'Art' and 'Appraisal'.
BRP is a class-less (Except for the Professions) and level-less system. In place of levels, players make
'experience checks' on skills they've used at the end of a session, and if they roll above the skill number, they
get to increase it marginally.
This is your ideal game if you hate level-up class systems but cream your jeans for advancing every little skill
out of one hundred or so on the sheet by tiny 1d6% shots. The only thing that was more of an accountant's
nightmare was CHAMPIONS.(this user cannot count to 100 and is a skeleton, how hard is it to add 1d6 to a
skill?)
Combat
Combat can be a nightmare depending on which system you choose to use (There are a few). Each round in
combat is 12 seconds.
The first method (And easiest for anyone coming out of D&D)
Players act in order of DEX (or DEX+1d10). They may delay actions, make reactive parries or dodges
(with penalties for doing either more than once in the round), etc.
The second method (or Whose Fucking Turn Is It Now?)
Players have a base Strike Rank which is based on their DEX and SIZ, then modified by their weapon
(or in the case of a spellcaster, the PP required for the spell). Players act on their final Strike Rank, after
any modifiers; ties are broken by who has the higher DEX. If the combatants' SR and DEX are the same,
they go at the same time. SR cycles from 1 to 10 and players perform their actions on their SR (may help
for everyone to put a d10 showing their SR next to their sheets); a single free dodge or parry is allowed
per SR with the normal penalties for making multiple dodges or parries in a round. If someone has a
Strike Rank higher than 10, they don't act. It's best to use this if you want hardcore, crunchy combat;
convert the combat manoeuvres from one of the more recent editions of RuneQuest and you're in
business.
Other Stuff
Chaosium released a free pdf of BRP-lite which is good enough for one-off games or small campaigns. Grab it
here (https://www.chaosium.com/basic-roleplaying/). Their forums[1] (https://basicroleplaying.org/) are
generally filled with decent, helpful people and it has a downloads section with a shitload of houserules and fan
settings in various stages of completion, like XCOM, Lord of the Rings, Fire & Sword (Like Mount & Blade)
and Halo[2] (https://basicroleplaying.org/files/)
Check out the RISK system, houserules for modern firearms on the forums, if you like simulationist, crunch-
heavy (it's actually not that heavy when you've read it a few times) and realistic gun combat. Eventually Fatal
(No, not that FATAL) is a set of alternate rules for wounds and bleeding out that replace hitpoints and combines
really well with RISK to make a gritty modern game.
Chaosium finally released in 2020 an Open Gaming License and System Reference Document for BRP. Despite
the expected whining from the forum nerds, it's now pretty easy to write something powered by BRP, even
though it strangely bars a few mechanics from being used.
External Links
Chaosium Main Site (https://www.chaosium.com/%7C)
BRP Forums (https://basicroleplaying.org/%7C)
All of the homebrew settings and houserules (https://basicroleplaying.org/files/%7C)
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