BRP and Fate newbie

[Avalon2099]

My friend is considering introducing BRP or Fate to our gaming group he's more leaning to BRP which I know nothing about, how's the balance on this system? What should I play if I want to have fun be good at optimization. I am very familiar with D&D in general and Palladium, and others just don't know anything about this system?

What are some good tips/tricks for making an optimized character?

[Arbane]

My friend is considering introducing BRP or Fate to our gaming group he's more leaning to BRP which I know nothing about, how's the balance on this system? What should I play if I want to have fun be good at optimization. I am very familiar with D&D in general and Palladium, and others just don't know anything about this system?

What are some good tips/tricks for making an optimized character?

Any particular genre in BRP? Because if it's Call Of Cthulhu, your character's two msot important stats are Move Speed and Sanity. :smallwink:

For FATE, I think the key to a good character is to come up with Aspects that both you AND the GM can get a lot of use out of.

[Avalon2099]

Any particular genre in BRP? Because if it's Call Of Cthulhu, your character's two msot important stats are Move Speed and Sanity. :smallwink:

For FATE, I think the key to a good character is to come up with Aspects that both you AND the GM can get a lot of use out of.

It wont be CoC, prolly his own setting. He hasnt really gone into detail on what hes planning, Most of us are used to Fantasy style games.

[Arbane]

It wont be CoC, prolly his own setting. He hasnt really gone into detail on what hes planning, Most of us are used to Fantasy style games.

Well, if there's going to be any combat, try to get your character armor (if it's setting-appropriate), and learn to dodge. BRP characters don't have anything like D&D's escalating hitpoints by level, and an arrow through the skull will ruin your day no matter how cool you are.

Important stats: If you want to use magic, INT and POW are the ones you need a lot of. If you want to be a (melee) fighter, STR, SIZ, and CON are really important. For a shooter, you want a lot of DEX.

Some versions of BRP base the number of skill-points you get off of your INT, DEX, and possibly a stat called EDU(cation).

And for some BRP games, you get all these stats by just rolling 3d6 (or 2d6 + 6 for SIZ and INT) and using whatever horrible gimped mess the dice give you, in which case none of this advice applies. :smallbiggrin: Good luck!

[WalkingTarget]

Well, the thing about BRP is that "optimization" in the D&D sense doesn't really come into play. The type of game you're going to be playing makes a difference, but there aren't necessarily class-like things for you to consider. It's an (almost) entirely skill-based system with a percentile, roll-under mechanic.

Pick a role you want to fill in the group.

Pick a profession (this gives you a list of skills related to that profession that you can spend 300 points on) that supports that role. You also get INT * 10 more points to put wherever you want, so having a high INT can go a long way to making you more effective as you have more points to allocate. This is for the generic BRP as I understand it. Specific setting rules, like CoC or Stormbringer, have different rules for character generation

BRP is a system where, at character creation, you can be a world-class expert in a field just by buying a skill into the 90th percentile (some of the licensed settings allow for skills higher than 100%, though - I'm not sure how that affects things). Character growth is through what you've been through at the story level and the knowledge you've acquired as a player. Your stats will go up somewhat, but there's no experience points to acquire/spend or levels to attain. You get to try to increase your score in individual skills between sessions/adventures, but only for those skills you've used effectively (and the higher your score already is, the harder it gets to improve them).

Optimization is mostly a factor of planning things with your group so that your niches are known as well as the general flavor of the game so that you know which skills you might want to focus on. Knowing that you're the group's Face and that you're the one putting points into Bargain, Fast-talk, Insight, and Persuade frees the others up to maybe put points into Medicine or First Aid (conversely, knowing that you're game is going to be combat heavy might mean that nobody really bothers with things like Bargain in the first place).

Here's (http://www.basicrps.com/core/BRP_quick_start.pdf) the quick start guide for the generic system.

Edit -


And for some BRP games, you get all these stats by just rolling 3d6 (or 2d6 + 6 for SIZ and INT) and using whatever horrible gimped mess the dice give you, in which case none of this advice applies. :smallbiggrin: Good luck!

People bring this up, but it's not like they don't allow for variations. I know for a fact that the CoC book has an entire sidebar in the character gen section that addresses complaints of bad rolls - one option is to simply pool all the rolled points and just assign them how you wish. It's a short step to skip the rolling and just give everybody the same number of points to build a character with.

[Arbane]

People bring this up, but it's not like they don't allow for variations. I know for a fact that the CoC book has an entire sidebar in the character gen section that addresses complaints of bad rolls - one option is to simply pool all the rolled points and just assign them how you wish. It's a short step to skip the rolling and just give everybody the same number of points to build a character with.

Heh. The last time I made a Call of Cthulhu character, I got all terrible rolls, with nothing higher than a 12 except for an 18, which I couldn't put in INT or SIZ (I had a 9 and a 12 to put in those). I also got really good social standing. So, I put the 18 in POW (for good luck), and made an Occult Investigator and Dilletante with all the smarts and skill of Bertie Wooster. :smallbiggrin:

Sadly, that game never got off the ground I'm sure I would've gotten eaten first.

[Kiero]

My friend is considering introducing BRP or Fate to our gaming group he's more leaning to BRP which I know nothing about, how's the balance on this system? What should I play if I want to have fun be good at optimization. I am very familiar with D&D in general and Palladium, and others just don't know anything about this system?

What are some good tips/tricks for making an optimized character?

Which incarnation of FATE? Because they're all different. Spirit of the Century is different to Starblazer Adventures is similar (but different setting) to Legends of Anglerre is different to The Dresden Files is different to Strands of Fate is different to Diaspora.