Opinions on The River Terror (BRP Monograph)?

fojo · Knight of the Outer Void Joined: Sep 16, 2005 Posts: 172

Hiyo, toying with the idea of taking advantage of the Chaosium Sale (30% off + exchange ratio USD-EURO seems interesting), I have found THE RIVER TERROR, and I have not found related topics in the forum.

So, any opinion on the book?

http://catalog.chaosium.com/product_info.php?cPath=55&products_id=5011

Thanks in advance,
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cjbowser · Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2009 7:32 pm Post subject:

It's straight up BRP without and Cthulhoild content. You can find some discussions of it over on BRP Central.
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malcojones · Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2009 7:43 pm Post subject:

I notice it's got lots of things in it including scenarios by Osk Rios and Tom Lynch.

But I don't get it. Why buy such a thing where there really isn't any indication of what its about, where or when the scenarios are set, etc?

Does anyone else share my mystification or am I missing something (like a brain)?

Best, malcojones

TheHistorian · Initiate Joined: Oct 12, 2009 Posts: 8

Some of the BRP monographs are an intentional hodgepodge of settings, genres, timeframes, etc.

I think it might also be a collection of contest winners or such, but I may be confusing it with something else.

So, if you're interested in that kind of variety, it's for you. If you only ever play one genre or whatever, it's less useful.

christian · Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2009 7:57 pm Post subject:

Malcojones

you have a point. The information of the monographs is usually awful. The blurb says very little, often you don't know if there are any scenarios or not. I can't understand how Chaosium doesn't pay more attention to the presentation of its monographs
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yockenthwaite · Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2009 8:20 pm Post subject:

GreveMagnus · Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 10:08 am Post subject:

Gaffer · Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 1:26 pm Post subject:

JonHook · Knight of the Outer Void Joined: Jul 06, 2008 Posts: 123

Yes, the monograph "The River Terror" is a collection of various scenarios set in a variety of worlds, settings, and situations. And as TheHistorian surmised, this monograph is the end result of the 2009 BRP Adventure Writing Contest.

I'm writing this note from work, and I don't have the monograph in front of me, but once I get home I can give more detailed info about the monograph if anyone is interested.

One of the scenarios in the monograph is mine, so I am able to tell you about it. I wrote a scenario with the premiss that the US Army had been working on developing psionic abilities in humans since the late 1930s. It is now 1945, and the Army has a secret squad of Special Forces Rangers who all have psychic abilities, and they are all part of X-Ray Company. Obviously, the PCs are all members of X-Ray Company.

The Army has learned that the Nazis are also working on a psionics program for their soldiers, and the Army has decided to put a stop to their program, so the Army initiates Operation: Mind Storm! "Operation: Mind Storm" is the name of my scenario in the monograph.

The BRP rulebook has a wide range of rules to cover a wide range of gaming possibilities, so I chose to focus in on one of those possibilities and center my scenario on that set of rules. Thus, I chose the Psychic Abilities section of the rules.

I tried to give tips to the GM on how to guide his players through the character creation portion of the game, including how to build characters via the point-based system so the players are sure to have characters with high POW ratings so they can be effective in the use of their powers. I even included three new psychic abilities in my scenario.

So thats about it. My scenario is WWII action pumped-up with a heavy dose of psionic powers.

malcojones · Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 6:04 pm Post subject: River Terror

Thanks for the info, Jon Hook. That sounds interesting.

On the other hand now that I understand this is a collection of competition entries and that its title is no indication of theme (I imagined all the scenarios would be about river crossings) I'm even more confused about the what and the why.

Any additional info on the other scenarios would be really helpful, and it sounds like not just to me.

Best, malcojones

GreveMagnus · Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 6:36 pm Post subject:

Yeah, someone talk me into buying this thing! Smile

Patrice · Initiate Joined: Nov 14, 2009 Posts: 2

Hi folks,

Think about it as a Weird Tales issue. There's Sci-Fi, heroic fantasy, horror, standard fiction, etc.

I wrote The Burmese Extravaganza, a pulp action adventure happening during the shooting of a pulp action silent movie back in the 1920's LA. The maps suck because I didn't have the time to edit them, but I'm happy with the content, it just goes from bang to bang until a really hot climax and after all, you're not architecture students, you're players and game designers so I guess you're not buying it for the mapping skills.

Some adventures inside are really worth your interest, and you will skip some others (mine probably), just as you would read a Weird Tales issue back then.

Fancy buying a pulp mag in 2009 ? Buy this, only it's RPG and not short novels.

Mysterioso · Master Joined: Sep 21, 2009 Posts: 20

Patrice:

"The Burmese Extravaganza" sounds like it would work well with material in the MULA "Farewell My Sanity"; both are in Los Angeles in the early 1920s. Having a non-Mythos interlude would be great, so it does intrigue me.

As you posted it here, do you see it being usable with CoC or are there quirks about using BRP scenarios with CoC?

Does the scenario have pre-generated characters or could it be played with others?

As for the maps, are you upset by the quality of them or are they off from what is described in the text? Maybe you could edit them and then post them as a PDF?

Mysterioso

Patrice · Initiate Joined: Nov 14, 2009 Posts: 2

The Burmese would do great if your intertwine it with CoC adventures. If you plan to do so, the only thing you should tweak is maybe adding SAN loss values to some threats and creatures roaming inside because losing SAN when facing a deep one in one adventure and not losing it when facing far worse in another would be weird.

It doesn't provides pre-gen characters and is designed to be played with standard 1920 circa BRP or CoC characters. Standard CoC characters will maybe have a hard time, though, since the Burmese is very pulpy but cops, private investigators and the like will do just fine.

The maps are okay for playing, albeit a bit sketchy and rough. I'm afraid my drawing skills are a bit akin to those of a 6-years old child.

If you ever play it, I'd love to hear how it went, all I have is my playtest session which was like playing an Indiana Jones movie.

GreveMagnus · Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 8:51 am Post subject:

Okay, I'm getting more interested ---

Anybody else want to help persuade me? Any other authors out there? Smile