Grade the Basic Roleplaying System

[Staffan]

It's really hard to say because "BRP" is so broad, particularly if you consider off-shoots. Does Dragonbane count? Troubleshooters?

Generally speaking, I consider BRP to be serviceable if... pedestrian, I guess. Unlike Poppyseed45, I find the lack of a framework for special abilities to be a nuisance – there are many things one can learn that are more-or-less binary, but BRP wants to make any learnable thing into a skill instead. This is one area where Troubleshooters is a step up from standard BRP, in combining a relatively small (~30, including some things most BRP versions treat as attributes) number of skills with an array of Abilities that often indicate some type of specialization within that skill. For example, there's one Melee skill, but you can use Abilities to specialize into fencing, judo, or boxing (and in theory other things, but that's what's in the core book).

 

[Velderan]

I voted it’s pretty good off my experience playing Call of Cthulhu. The system was pretty easy to pick up and lent itself pretty well to the style of game CoC is. I used the luck stat a lot to resolve player questions, which they seemed to enjoy since it gave them a bit more of a mechanic to have agency in the game than a lot of other games. We probably went the first hour of the game easy with me not rolling anything as the GM and it kept the players more engaged IMO.

Being able to push a bad roll was popular too. Having something bad happen if the pushed roll failed just helped build suspense, at least with my group.

 

[Tonguez]

its been a while since I played CoC or RQ (and even then didnt play much) but I do recall that I really liked its % based Skills system (and everything from skills to magic to wealth was modelled as a skill level). I'm not so enamoured of the maths needed for derived stats though, it works for CoC with its all human archetypes. RQ thought got a bit too complex for my liking.
Prefer the Warhammer system for % based games

 

[Wicht]

I voted "love," though I could be persuaded to go with "its pretty good," but truth is that I really, really like it, especially when running Call of Cthulhu, and "it's pretty good," just doesn't seem quite fitting for my sentiment. If I am going to run a classless, skill base system, I am going to default to some aspect of BRP nearly everytime.

 

[billd91]

Honestly, I love it. It's always worked great for the main game I use it in - Call of Cthulhu. It worked well for it from the beginning and has gotten even better over the years.

 

[Velderan]

I voted "love," though I could be persuaded to go with "its pretty good," but truth is that I really, really like it, especially when running Call of Cthulhu, and "it's pretty good," just doesn't seem quite fitting for my sentiment. If I am going to run a classless, skill base system, I am going to default to some aspect of BRP nearly everytime.

Honestly, I love it. It's always worked great for the main game I use it in - Call of Cthulhu. It worked well for it from the beginning and has gotten even better over the years.

Only reason I didn’t vote love it is I haven’t tried any of the other games that use it. The rule set is great for CoC.

 

[schneeland]

there are many things one can learn that are more-or-less binary, but BRP wants to make any learnable thing into a skill instead. This is one area where Troubleshooters is a step up from standard BRP, in combining a relatively small (~30, including some things most BRP versions treat as attributes) number of skills with an array of Abilities that often indicate some type of specialization within that skill. For example, there's one Melee skill, but you can use Abilities to specialize into fencing, judo, or boxing (and in theory other things, but that's what's in the core book).

I haven't looked into Troubleshooters (so far), but I would argue that specialisations like the one you mention are probably the most accepted/least controversial form of variation on a skill system (and it's also the approach I would personally pick first when trying to simplify BRP's rather extensive skill list).

 

[General_Tangent]

I am a fan of the BRP system and CoC.

I've always liked the roll under percentile mechanics which really help me as a GM, I can just ask people to make an appropriate roll and keep the game flowing.

 

[Tony Vargas]

It's essentially an early TTRPG core system, starting with, I think - I've never seen it - Stormbringer, and then RuneQuest (which I've liked a lot, but only gotten to play a little over the years). In the early 80s it was packaged as BRP in boxed sets and became one of the first core systems presented as such.
3.0/d20 was basically on about the same plane as BRP, 20 years later.

And, of course, the most successful/popular/well-known game using it is Call of Cthulhu (which I happen to be playing 1/mo this year, it's been fun).
It is old tho, and it hasn't changed /that/ much, especially not fundamentally, and it shows.

 

[Staffan]

I haven't looked into Troubleshooters (so far), but I would argue that specialisations like the one you mention are probably the most accepted/least controversial form of variation on a skill system (and it's also the approach I would personally pick first when trying to simplify BRP's rather extensive skill list).

Troubleshooters is clearly recognizable as a BRP descendant (it even uses Pendragon rolls!), much like Pathfinder 2e is recognizable as a descendant of AD&D. In both cases, there have been quite a few mutations along the way though.