James Nicoll Reviews

Jason Durall and Steve Perrin’s¹ 2023 Basic Roleplaying: Universal Game Engine (BRUGE) is the latest edition of Chaosium’s venerable simulationist house system, Basic Roleplaying (BRP). As one might guess from the title, BRUGE facilitates roleplaying in all genres.

Why release a new BRP²? There were two excellent reasons, the first of which was Hasbro bean-counter idiocy.

Hasbro (which owns Wizards of the Coast, which publishes table-top roleplaying game’s 800-pound gorilla, Dungeons and Dragons aka D&D) had for decades used their Open Gaming License to smother alternative systems. They did so by allowing third parties to use D&D’s basic mechanics, subject to certain conditions. D&D’s market being huge, a small part of that market was irresistible. Energy that went into OGL games was not going into rival systems. Many minor game companies were dependent on the OGL, so news that Hasbro was going to introduce far more onerous terms sent shockwaves through the industry.

As continental Saxons could tell you, one person’s apocalypse is another person’s opportunity. In a surprising short time, Paizo and other companies crafted the Open RPG Creative License (ORC). ORC has many interesting features, not least of which is that it is not subject to Hasbro whims. Chaosium signed on for ORC, and in an astonishing short time produced a version of BRP tied to ORC, which is (as you may guessed) BRUGE³.

While the OGL nonsense may have been the specific trigger for BRUGE, another compelling reason for a new edition is that the existing edition, the Big Gold Book (so-called because it is big, kind of gold-colored, and a book)

was a product of a very different, far more cash-strapped Chaosium regime. In many ways, the BGB did not reflect Chaosium’s current image. Nor could it take into account what Durell had learned about game design since writing the BGB. A new edition allowed Durall to address the BGB’s shortcomings.

BRUGE is sleeker, 264 pages to BGB’s 400. BRUGE is hardcover compared to the BGB’s soft-cover (both editions also come in PDF.). BRUGE has less art, but the art leans full color and is more professionally presented. BRUGE is a far slicker edition.

Is BRUGE truly universal? Well, no. It’s probably impossible to create a unified system that can handle the full range of games (mundane to heroic to godlike characters). BRP breaks down when demigods come into play. This is particularly true for BRUGE when superheroes are concerned, due to design choices I will get into later. BRP-derived systems do deal nicely with both fragile mortal humans and Conan-level heroes.

There is some evidence of the haste with which this edition was assembled. For one thing, the text of my hardcover differs slightly from the text of my PDF. The PDF’s phrasing seems to have been clarified since BRUGE was first released. There are enough typos that even I notice them, many involving superfluous letters w. While there are references here and there to an optional strike rank system, the optional strike system itself does not appear to exist. Despite efforts to streamline the rules, some redundancies remain. A table supplying both American traditional units and metric is wildly broken, even by the standards of American game companies.

A James-specific issue with this edition: one of the means by which the page count was reduced was by reducing the font size from one I could barely read to one that gives me a migraine⁴. Good thing that Chaosium bundles a PDF with its hardcovers⁵. But too bad that the text is double-column, which means that if the image is expanded enough to be readable, reading involves a lot of scrolling down, up, sideways, and back down. At some point, game companies will ask themselves if double-columned PDFs are readable but today is not that day.

Readers should be aware that the 264-page length is somewhat deceptive, even if one takes into account the tiny font. Most game system core rules also include ample details on the game’s setting. Chaosium’s RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha is 488 pages to BRUGE’s 264… but a considerable number of those pages focus on the world of Glorantha. BRUGE has no setting. BRUGE is 264 pages of fine print detailing rules and ancillary mechanics-related information. I share the abject terror some of you may feel as you contemplate this behemoth.

But on the other hand: Bruge outlines a vast array of rules options intended to cover every possible contingency. Of course, no game will need to use all the rules. Specific campaigns would only use a specific subset⁶ of the rules, which reduces demand on the memories of gamemaster and players alike. Of course, gamemasters would have to decide which subset to be used, but that’s why GMs get paid the big bucks⁷.

More good news: the text is extensively cross-referenced and indexed. Unlike certain games I could mention, page numbers provided in cross-references and the index are actually correct⁸. There are handy flow charts to guide creative efforts. There may be a daunting number of details to juggle, but Durall et al have tried to facilitate the process as much as humanly possible.

BRUGE is not a conventional table-top roleplaying game. What it is: a vast, flexible toolkit. It gives an ambitious game master the means to create their own roleplaying game that is fine-tuned to their chosen gameplay and setting. In the right hands, BRUGE could allow gamers to create wonders, something that Chaosium is doing its best to encourage.

Basic Roleplaying: Universal Roleplaying Engine is available from Chaosium itself, via DriveThru RPG, and no doubt from your friendly neighborhood game store.

Now let’s get into the details.

Introduction

The obligatory explanation of essential roleplaying game core concepts. Reflecting the mature state of the market, the introduction is comparatively short.

Characters

How to create characters using the BRUGE rules. Each of the ten steps has its own check list to complete before moving to the next stage, thus there are a lot more than ten steps to complete. However, not every step is applicable to every campaign (a Lord of the Rings-style fantasy campaign doesn’t need the superhero rules). How complex the character generation systems are will depend on the GM’s setting choices.

Some games have character classes, in which certain abilities and knowledge fields are the exclusive domain of specific categories. BRUGE leans the other way. While professions and backgrounds shape what skills are initially available to characters, in theory anyone can try their hand at anything (almost). The possibilities are nearly endless!

What characters will (almost certainly) have in common is a certain fragility. BRUGE game worlds are for the most part worlds where decapitations are instantly fatal rather than a trifling flesh wound.

Skills

Skills require both aptitude and specific knowledge. There are many listed skills, each with its own definition. The list is expandable and potentially infinite. Each skill entry features its base chance of success (which can be improved in character generation or later), a note as to which general category the skill belongs, a definition, lists of any specialties available, notes on how the skill operates in different settings, as well as other relevant information.

Values range from 0 to 100. Success or failure is determined by generating a random number between 1 and 100. Rolls equal to or less than the skill value succeeds Higher rolls fail. There are degrees of success and failure.

Powers

Powers are extraordinary abilities. BRUGE offers five flavors: magic, mutations, psionics, sorcery, and superpower. Which if any are in play depends on the campaign.

Mutations are biology-based. Psionics involve mental powers. Superpowers cover super heroic abilities. Magic is… well, magic. So is sorcery.

I’ve read the game’s definitions of magic and sorcery over and over. For the life of me, I have no idea why they treated as distinct, as opposed to flavors of the same thing.

All kinds of powers can be at play in one game. A team of superheroes could easily include a skilled hunter, a psychic, a mutant, and a sorcerer.

Speaking of superheroes, superheroes in most superhero games are very durable. BRP characters are for the most part tripe-filled pinatas. BRP-derived games might work for street-level characters like Batman⁹ or Rorschach, but they generally don’t handle your Supermen or Dr. Manhattans very well. This is particularly true for BRUGE (a variation on BRP) because damage-causing energy is divided into eleven types, with options for more, and defenses against each must be acquired separately. Invulnerable characters, so common in comics, seem prohibitively expensive in BRUGE. This is an issue peculiar to BGB and BRUGE: previous versions of Superworld had but three kinds of damage-causing energy.

System

Game mechanics.

Combat

Rules re combat and its consequences.

Spot Rules

An assortment of useful rules.

Equipment

Gear and the economics thereof.

One of the odd details I noticed is that advanced weapons systems tend to be inaccurate. A flintlock pistol has a base chance of 20%. A disintegrator pistol has a base chance of 5%. Both have the same range. The disintegrator does do a lot more damage… to innocent bystanders.

Gamemastering

How to run rewarding, fun campaigns.

Settings

BRUGE being setting-free, it is up to GMs to craft their own worlds. This chapter contains world-building advice.

Poul Anderson would have loved this part of the game.

Creatures

A list of non-human animals.

Appendices

To quote: “a variety of play aids, including conversion notes to use Basic Roleplaying with other Chaosium Inc. games, an afterword, a

bibliography of sources consulted, character sheets, references, and tables presented for convenience.”

Index

THERE IS AN INDEX. EVERY ENTRY I CHECKED WAS CORRECT.

If I wanted egg in my beer, each index entry in the pdf would have had links to the relevant pages, but hey, just having a functional index at all is by no means guaranteed. Although it should be.

1: Based on the Basic Roleplaying system created by Steve Perrin, Steve Henderson, Warren James, Greg Stafford, Sandy Petersen,

Ray Turney, Lynn Willis.

In addition to Durall and Perrin, the full credits are

Cover Art: Loïc Muzy

Artists: Loïc Muzy, Grzegorz Bobrowski, Giorgio Baroni, Manuel Castanon, Charlie Creber, Antonia Doncheva, Shen Fei, Andrey Fetisov, Piotr Foksowicz, Matt Forsyth, Ossi Hiekkal, Chris Huth, Tomasz Jedruszek, Michelle Lockamy, Phu Thieu Mac, Lionel Marty, Loïc Muzy, Simon, Roy, Dimitar Stoyanov, John Sumrow, and Cory Trego-Erdner

Producer: Neil Robinson

Design & Layout: Adam Szelążek

Character Sheets: Dan Zappone

Additional Credits: Daria Pilarczyk, Rick Meints, Michael O’Brien, and Jeff Richard

Special Thanks: Ken St. Andre, William Barton, Bill Dunn, Sam Johnson, William Jones, Rodney Leary, Ben Monroe, Mark L. Gambler, Gordon Monson, Sarah Newton, Sam Shirley, Mark Morrison, and Richard Watts.

2: My first question was “which edition of BRP is BRUGE?” I am happy to report that BRUGE is either the third (according to Durall) or up to the eleventh (going by Chaosium copyrighting BRP in 1981, 1983, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2008, 2010) edition of BRP.

There is a fairly compelling reason to embrace Durall’s answer. Prior to the Big Gold Book, BRP was minimalistic and slender. The Big Gold Book was a tome because for the first time it collected all of the variant BRP rules in one place. It is perfectly reasonably to consider pre-BGB BRP one thing and post-BGB BRP something else entirely.

3: I am so happy Chaosium did not call this edition the Basic Universal Roleplaying System. I would rather not type BURPS over and over.

4: The tiny font might not be an issue (or at least not as much of an issue) if UW Optometry had been able to provide me with new lenses with half the alacrity with which they accepted payment.

5: Because I purchased BRUGE during an interval during which Chaosium did not have Canadian distribution, I bought the PDF directly from Chaosium but used Amazon credits to get my hands on the hardcover.

6: Some options are mutually exclusive so it would not be possible to use all of them at the same time even if the GM wanted to do so. Don’t let me stop you from trying.

7: GMs are not in fact paid the big bucks. In most cases they are not paid the bucks at all. GMs must settle for the respect of other GMs, the adulation of players, and the affections of groupies. Also, there are no groupies. Players can be hard to come by. As for their fellow GMs, there’s a reason so many glasses of diet Coke taste faintly of iocane powder.

8: Although one must note that while the cross-reference on page 145 is technically correct, the fact that it references page 145 means it’s not entirely helpful.

9: Power gamers may be interested to learn that certain details of the experience system favor skill-focused characters like Batman or Travis McGee in ways that may not be immediately obvious to GMs.