''Basic Role-Playing'' (''BRP'') is a
tabletop role-playing game
A tabletop role-playing game (typically abbreviated as TRPG or TTRPG), also known as a pen-and-paper role-playing game, is a form of role-playing game (RPG) in which the participants describe their characters' actions through speech. Participa ...
which originated in the ''
RuneQuest
''RuneQuest'' (commonly abbreviated as RQ) is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game originally designed by Steve Perrin, Ray Turney, Steve Henderson (game designer), Steve Henderson, and Warren James, and set in Greg Stafford's mythical world of ...
''
fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...
role-playing game
A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...
.
Chaosium
Chaosium Inc. is a publisher of tabletop role-playing games established by Greg Stafford in 1975. Chaosium's major titles include '' Call of Cthulhu'', based on the horror fiction stories of H. P. Lovecraft'', RuneQuest Glorantha'', ''Pendragon'' ...
released the ''BRP'' standalone booklet in 1980 in the boxed set release of the second edition of ''RuneQuest''.
Greg Stafford
Francis Gregory Stafford (February 9, 1948 – October 10, 2018), usually known as Greg Stafford, was an American game designer, publisher, and practitioner of shamanism.
Stafford is most famous as the creator of the fantasy world of Glorantha ...
and
Lynn Willis
Lynn Willis (died January 18, 2013) was a wargame and role-playing game designer, best known for his work with Metagaming Concepts, Game Designers' Workshop (GDW), and Chaosium.
Biography
Willis began by designing science fiction wargames for Me ...
are credited as the authors. Chaosium used the percentile skill-based system as the basis for most of their games, including ''
Call of Cthulhu'', ''
Stormbringer
Stormbringer is a magic sword featured in a number of fantasy stories by the author Michael Moorcock. It is described as a huge, black sword covered with strange runes, created by the forces of Chaos with its own will. It is wielded by the doo ...
'', and ''
Elfquest''.
History
The core rules were originally written by
Steve Perrin
Stephen Herbert Perrin (January 22, 1946 – August 13, 2021) was an American game designer and technical writer/editor, best known for creating the tabletop role-playing game ''RuneQuest'' for Chaosium.
Early life and education
Perrin earned a ...
as part of his game ''RuneQuest''. It was
Greg Stafford
Francis Gregory Stafford (February 9, 1948 – October 10, 2018), usually known as Greg Stafford, was an American game designer, publisher, and practitioner of shamanism.
Stafford is most famous as the creator of the fantasy world of Glorantha ...
's idea to simplify the rules (eliminating such things as Strike Ranks and Hit Locations) and issue them in a 16-page booklet called ''Basic Role-Playing''. Over the years several others, including
Sandy Petersen
Carl Sanford Joslyn "Sandy" Petersen (born September 16, 1955) is an American game designer. He worked at Chaosium, contributing to the development of ''RuneQuest'' and later creating the acclaimed and influential horror role-playing game ''Call ...
,
Lynn Willis
Lynn Willis (died January 18, 2013) was a wargame and role-playing game designer, best known for his work with Metagaming Concepts, Game Designers' Workshop (GDW), and Chaosium.
Biography
Willis began by designing science fiction wargames for Me ...
, and
Steve Henderson, contributed to the system.
The ''BRP'' was notable for being the first role-playing game system to introduce a full skill system to characters regardless of their profession. This was developed in ''RuneQuest'' but was also later adopted by the more skill-oriented ''Call of Cthulhu''.
''BRP'' was conceived of as a generic system for playing any sort of RPG. Specific rule systems to support differing genres can be added to the core rules in a modular design. In order to underscore this, in 1982 Chaosium released the ''
Worlds of Wonder'' box set, which contained a revised main booklet and several booklets providing the additional rules for playing in specific genres. ''
Superworld
''Superworld'' is a superhero-themed role-playing game published by Chaosium in 1983 that uses the generic ''Basic Role-Playing'' rules system. The game began as just one part of the '' Worlds of Wonder'' product before being published as a stand ...
'', a superhero-themed game, began as a portion of the ''Worlds of Wonder'' set. In 2002, a third edition of the core booklet, now titled ''Basic Roleplaying: The Chaosium System'', was released in 2002.
In 2004, Chaosium published the ''Basic Roleplaying'' monographs, a series of paperback booklets. The first four monographs (''Players Book'', ''Magic Book'', ''Creatures Book'', and ''Gamemaster Book'') were essentially ''RuneQuest'' 3rd Edition, but with the ''RuneQuest'' name and other trademarks removed, as Chaosium had lost the rights to the name but retained copyright of the rules text. Additional monographs allowing for new mechanics, thereby extending the system to other genres, were released in the following years. Many of these monographs reproduced rules from other Chaosium-published ''BRP'' games that had gone out of print.
In 2008,
Jason Durall and Sam Johnson brought together all of the previous works and updated them to a new edition. This comprehensive book, ''Basic Roleplaying: The Chaosium System'', was nicknamed the "Big Gold Book", and allowed game masters to essentially build their own game from the various subsystems included. A quickstart booklet for new players accompanied it. In 2011 it was then updated to a second edition.
In 2020, Chaosium released ''Basic Roleplaying'' as a
System Reference Document
In the open gaming movement, a System Reference Document (SRD) is a reference for a role-playing game's mechanics licensed under the Open Game License (OGL) to allow other publishers to make material compatible with that game.
History
The first ...
(SRD).
Other games published over the years by Chaosium using the ''BRP'' ruleset include ''
Ringworld
''Ringworld'' is a 1970 science fiction novel by Larry Niven, set in his Known Space universe and considered a classic of science fiction literature. ''Ringworld'' tells the story of Louis Wu and his companions on a mission to the Ringworld, a ...
'', ''
Hawkmoon'', and ''
Nephilim
The Nephilim (; ''Nəfīlīm'') are mysterious beings or people in the Hebrew Bible who are large and strong. The word ''Nephilim'' is loosely translated as ''giants'' in some translations of the Hebrew Bible, but left untranslated in others. ...
''.
Rules system
''BRP'' is similar to other generic systems such as ''
GURPS
The ''Generic Universal RolePlaying System'', or ''GURPS'', is a tabletop role-playing game system designed to allow for play in any game setting. It was created by Steve Jackson Games and first published in 1986 at a time when most such systems w ...
'', ''
Hero System
The ''Hero System'' is a generic role-playing game system that was developed from the superhero RPG ''Champions''. After ''Champions'' fourth edition was released in 1989, a stripped-down version of its ruleset with no superhero or other genre ...
'', or ''
Savage Worlds
''Savage Worlds'' is a role-playing game written by Shane Lacy Hensley and published by Pinnacle Entertainment Group. The game emphasizes speed of play and reduced preparation over realism or detail. The game received the 2003 Origin Gamers' Choi ...
'' in that it uses a simple resolution method which can be broadly applied. ''BRP'' uses a core set of seven
characteristics: Size, Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Power, and Appearance or Charisma. From those, a character derives scores in various
skills
A skill is the learned ability to act with determined results with good execution often within a given amount of time, energy, or both. Skills can often be divided into domain-general and domain-specific skills. For example, in the domain of wo ...
, expressed as percentages. These skill scores are the basis of play. When attempting an action, the player rolls percentile dice trying to get a result equal to or lower than the character's current skill score. Each incarnation of the ''BRP'' rules has changed or added to the core ideas and mechanics, so that games are not identical. For example, in ''Call of Cthulhu'', skills may never be over 100%, while in ''Stormbringer'' skills in excess of 100% are within reach for all characters. Scores can increase through experience checks, the mechanics of which vary in an individual game.
''BRP'' treats armor and defense as separate functions: the act of parrying is a defensive skill that reduces an opponent's chance to successfully land an attack, and the purpose of armor is to absorb damage.
The last major element of many ''BRP'' games is that there is no difference between the player character race systems and that of the monster or opponents. By varying ability scores, the same system is used for a human hero as a troll villain. This approach allows for players to play a wide variety of non-human species.
Licensed games
Chaosium was an early adopter of licensing out its ''BRP'' system to other companies, something that was unique at the time they began but commonplace now thanks to the
d20 licenses.
This places ''BRP'' in the notable position of being one of the first products to allow other game companies to develop games or game aids for their work. For example, ''
Other Suns
''Other Suns'' is a science-fiction role-playing game published by Fantasy Games Unlimited (FGU) in 1983.
Description
''Other Suns'' is a science-fiction space-adventure system of medium complexity.The game includes a dozen alien races that rese ...
'', published by
Fantasy Games Unlimited
Fantasy Games Unlimited (FGU) is a publishing house for tabletop and role-playing games. The company has no in-house design teams and relies on submitted material from outside talent.
History
Founded in the summer of 1975 in Jericho, New York b ...
(FGU), used them under license. ''BRP'' was also used as the base for the Swedish game ''
Drakar och Demoner
''Drakar och Demoner'' (Swedish language, Swedish for ''Dragons and Demons'', in Sweden commonly referred to by the abbreviation "DoD") is a Sweden, Swedish fantasy role-playing game first published in 1982 by the game publishing company Ävent ...
'' from
Target Games
Target Games was a Swedish publisher of role-playing games active from 1980 until the year 1999 when they went into bankruptcy proceedings. Until the mid-1990s they published their Swedish roleplaying games under the brand name Äventyrsspel (me ...
.
[http://www.svd.se/drakar-och-demoner-flyger-igen(in Swedish)]
Reception
In the July 1981 edition of ''
The Space Gamer
''The Space Gamer'' was a magazine dedicated to the subject of science fiction and fantasy board games and tabletop role-playing games. It quickly grew in importance and was an important and influential magazine in its subject matter from the la ...
'' (Issue No. 41), Ronald Pehr commented that "''Basic Role-Playing'' is too little too late. ''
RuneQuest
''RuneQuest'' (commonly abbreviated as RQ) is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game originally designed by Steve Perrin, Ray Turney, Steve Henderson (game designer), Steve Henderson, and Warren James, and set in Greg Stafford's mythical world of ...
'' is long established, does an adequate job of teaching role-playing, and there are now even more games to choose from. If you want to teach role-playing to a very young, but literate, child, ''Basic Role-Playing'' is excellent. Otherwise, for all its charm, it's not much use.".
In the August 1981 edition of ''
Dragon
A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...
'' (Issue 52), John Sapienza noted that ''Basic Roleplaying'' was "not a fantasy role-playing game as such, but a handbook on how to role-play and a simple combat system to help the beginner get into the act." Despite this, Sapienza called it "one of the best introductions to the practical social interactions in gaming that I have read, and will give beginning gamers the kind of guidance they typically do not get in the full-scale games they will graduate to, since game writers usually spend their time on mechanics instead of on the proper relationships between player and player, player and referee, or player and character." He concluded, "''Basic Role-Playing'' is a truly universal introduction to the hobby — highly recommended."
Awards
The ''BRP'' itself has been the recipient, via its games, of many awards. Most notable was the 1981
Origins Award
The Origins Awards are American awards for outstanding work in the game industry. They are presented by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design at the Origins Game Fair on an annual basis for the previous year, so (for example) the 1979 aw ...
for ''Best Roleplaying Rules'' for ''
Call of Cthulhu''.
Other editions of ''Call of Cthulhu'' have also won Origins Awards including the Hall of Fame award. The ''BRP'' Character Generation software has also won awards for its design.
References
External links
Chaosium's ''Basic Role-Playing'' Product Line PageBasic Roleplaying Central- The community fansite for ''Basic Roleplaying'' game systems.
{{RPG systems
Chaosium games
Greg Stafford games
Role-playing games introduced in 1980
Universal role-playing games