d20 vs BRP (or the evolution of the d20 system)

Someone recently asked on FB why Call of Cthulhu (and Delta Green) which uses BRP was so un-intuitive, requiring low rolls for skill checks and combat. He thought that d20 was much more intuitive with adding your skill level and bonuses to your die roll to meet or beat a specific target number.

Actually, BRP was more consistent and intuitive than d20 for a very long time.

It's all a matter of history.

D&D (1974-1976)

Once, a long long time ago, there was a game called D&D (1974). Armor Classes (AC) went from 9 (no armor) to 2 (plate mail + shield). You had to roll high on a d20 to hit someone in better armor and there was a lookup chart based on your Hit Dice (level) to see if you could hit that armor class. A natural 1 was a miss and a natural 20 was an automatic hit. A 1 HD attacker needed to roll a 17 or better to hit AC 2. There was a lookup chart for saving throws based on level and class vs various dangers such as Poison, Dragon Breath, and Spells. It was a weird thing where you had to roll high to hit lower ACs. The whole system was built to be consistent where you had to roll high to succeed.

D&D (1974) - Attack and Save Matrix

Arduin Grimoire Trilogy (1977-1978)

In 1977, David Hargrave published The Arduin Grimoire, supplements to D&D. It had critical hit and fumble charts, new monsters, magic spells, and items. If you rolled a 1, you rolled % on the fumble table which ranged from a glancing blow to critically hitting yourself. If you rolled a 20, you rolled % on the critical hit chart which ranged from ruining an eye to decapitation.

Arduin Grimoire (1977) Critical Hit and Fumble Charts

AD&D (1977-1979)

AD&D came out in 1977-1979 after Arduin Grimore and added their idea of a critical hit (though in the text of DMG they poo-pooed the idea of critical hit location tables or double damage); if you rolled a 20, it was good for 6 consecutive armor classes, then you needed a 21, 22, etc. to hit higher armor classes. It also introduced the idea of THAC0 (To Hit Armor Class 0). Save throws still required rolling high to succeed. But a thief had skills where you had to roll your skill or below to succeed. So you had to look up your level and skill on a table to see what number you had to roll to succeed. Every time your character leveled up, you needed to update your skill %. AC 2 stayed the same (now requires a 18 to be hit by a 1st level attacker) and AC 10 was now "no armor."

AD&D (1979) DMG - Attack Matrix

AD&D (1977) Players Handbook - Thief Table

Call of Cthulhu (1981)

Chaosium (BRP, 1981), publisher of Call of Cthulhu, decided it was easier to just roll your skill or below. It was more intuitive. You roll low to succeed. No special tables were needed (except for the dreaded Resistance Table, a look up table for POW vs POW). BRP is a skill based system, not a level based system. If your skill was 40%, you just needed to roll 40% or less on your percentile dice. If you roll low enough (1/5 of your skill, 1/5 * 40% = roll 8% or less in this example) you do an impale and cause double damage. A natural 01% was a critical success. A natural 100% was a fumble. BRP was consistent overall. Roll low to succeed for combat, save throws, and skills.

D&D 3.0 (2000)

Then D&D evolved (D&D 3.0, 2000) and Armor Class became a number you just had to roll or beat to hit your opponent. Still, rolling high to succeed. And your bonuses were based on your level, so you don't need a special table anymore. The AC was now the number you had to roll (with bonuses) in order to hit. Critical Hits were added. If you rolled a natural 20, there's a chance of a critical hit if you roll again and score a hit, you do double damage (so much for poo-pooing critical hits). Saving Throws and Skill Checks switched to DC (difficulty class) where you had to roll the number or higher to succeed. So, now D&D was consistent for combat, save throws, and skill checks. Roll high to succeed.

D&D 5.0 (2014)

D&D 5.0 (2014), Critical hits were now just your natural 20 causing double damage. Also some skills (assassinate) cause critical hits and some magic weapons generate critical hits on lower numbers such as a natural 19 and 20. So, D&D went full circle back to a natural 20 being a critical hit.

Pop Quiz: When is AC 2 better than AC 10? When is AC 28 better than AC 10?
Answer: Depends on your version of D&D. 😊

The Yellow King RPG (YKRPG) - Review of GUMSHOE QuickShock

Slip case turns into GM screen. Actual product.

Inside of slipcase as GM screen. Paris book and Shock and Injury Cards. Actual products.

Slipcase on the right is not the actual product, but a mockup, real slipcase is a bit narrower and has no printing or embossing on the side.
This shows the 4 setting books in YKRPG.

GUMSHOE QuickShock

I play tested (as a Player) The Yellow King RPG (YKRPG) and enjoyed it, but I didn't really understand the streamlined aspects of GUMSHOE QuickShock until I ran it as a GM.

Instead of managing resources for Investigative Abilities, Players are just given 2 Pushes, floating points that can be used with any Investigative Ability. This got rid of a lot of unnecessary resource management that happens with GUMSHOE 1.0. So, instead of having various Investigative Ability points and having Players trying to decide if they want to spend any, that is all gone. They just have 2 floating points to spend. Much easier to keep track of and it ups the importance of the two points. I handed out physical tokens for the points which have to be turned in when spent.

In the game I ran, 3 Pushes were spent. One to make an exceptional sculpture of a tuberculosis patient, just because the PC had "some people I sculpt die suddenly" as That Deuced Peculiar Business. Another spent a Push on convincing a NPC to tell more about a Blackmail that was happening. Another spent a Push after the scenario to author (spoiler, hover over green fairy box to display):

The Phantom of the Opera.

The new single round Fight system also streamlined combat into one round and makes it more narrative. A great improvement to the old lackluster combat from Trail of Cthulhu. What is impressive is that Night's Black Agents added complexity to combat to spice it up, but YKRPG went in the opposite direction and simplified it even more. My mind is blown that you can do that and succeed.

In combat, Players first decide their desired outcome: kill, escape, other (subdue, take an item, etc.). Depending on their desired outcome, the difficulty level is adjusted. Non-lethal is easier than lethal outcomes. Then each PC spends Fighting points and add 1d6. If the total equals or beats the secret target number, it is a success and the margin of success is recorded. If the total is below the target number, it is a setback and the margin of success (failure) is adjusted. In the end, a negative margin of success means the PCs failed (and the GM narrates what happens); otherwise they succeed in their declared outcome. As each PC spends points, they must describe what action they're taking, their 1d6 + Fighting spend determines how successful they are. This is how the narrative part kicks in. After every PC describes their action and each action is either a success or setback, we get the final resolution.

In combat, any failure results in an Injury represented by an Injury card. A -1 margin of success results in a Minor Injury. A -2 (or worse) margin of success is a Major Injury. The Injury cards have flavor text, mechanical penalties, and rules on how to get rid of the card. This also adds a narrative twist to combat.

For other tests, there are either physical Injury cards or mental Shock cards.

In the game I ran, a NPC had a gun and was going to shoot at a PC. The goal: take the gun away. One PC wanted to restrain the NPC; one PC wanted to slap the NPC's gun hand away, so it can't aim at the other PC; the last PC wanted to wrestle the gun out of the NPC's hand. They all succeeded and dog piled the NPC and took the gun away. This turned out to be a lot more cinematic than "Ok, each of you roll combat skills; roll 1d6-2 for damage; he's still up; roll attacks again; he finally goes unconscious; you take his gun." And this new Fight system only took one round of dice rolling.

For tougher creatures, a fight always takes a Toll. Some creatures automatically costs points in Athletics, Fighting, and/or Health (combination determined by Player). This mainly just wears down the PC and may result in an Injury if the PC can't pay the Toll.

In the new QuickShock system, the Injury and Shock cards describe the physical and mental health of the PC. When the PC receives their 3rd Injury or 3rd Shock card, the PC is either dead or insane (this is for Horror mode; in Occult Adventure mode, it's the 4th card instead of the 3rd that knocks you out).

Overall, I really like this new streamlined GUMSHOE QuickShock. It's more narrative and more cinematic. Gone are the dull multiple rounds of rolling a single d6 and wearing down an opponent.

QuickShock Injury and Shock Cards

I ordered the cards and they came in handy. Of note, the cards came in a weird unsorted order. The first thing that I did was to sort all the cards alphabetically. Having the cards is really useful for face-to-face games. If you're just running your game online, then the PDFs work great and you don't need to spend extra money for the cards.

PARIS - Character Generation

Character generation is quick and simple with the selection of an Investigator kit (Investigative Abilities where you can spend Pushes) and a General kit (General Abilities with points such as Athletics and Fighting). The 7 Investigative kits are based on area of study such as Sculptor, Painter, Poet. The 9 General kits are based on background or previous training such as Farm kid, Factory worker, Former med student, Former cadet.

Players then choose Drives and Relationships between PCs. That's to add flavor and to prevent PCs from turtling and avoiding investigations.

The best innovation is That Deuced Peculiar Business, a strange eerie event that has touched the PC. The Player picks or invents one for their PC. It became easy to weave this Peculiar Business into the start of a scenario. I took elements for each PC's Peculiar Business and inserted it into a poster for an upcoming event. That really kicked the PCs into gear.

PARIS - 1895 Setting

The Paris Exhibition (World's Fair) was in 1889 and the controversial Eiffel Tower was built for it. Famous authors, composers, scientists, and artists flocked to Paris. This was a golden age where you can run into Cezanne, Degas, Debussy, Gauguin, Proust, Renoir, Rodin, Mme Curie, Louis Pasteur at your local cafe, bookshop, theater, or bar. The book lists pages and pages of NPCs. Unfortunately there were no photographs or examples of their work in the book, so I went crazy Googling everything that was mentioned.

Maps of Paris:

Period Map of Paris 1889

Website of Old Maps of Paris, all time periods

Website of Old Maps (including Paris)

The setting is amazingly rich and I'm learning a lot about the Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune.

YKRPG - Product Quality

The slipcase that turns into a GM screen is amaze-balls. It's held together with hidden magnets and works really well. It's a really beautiful product. See above pictures.

Due to having a new print house, there were issues in having the product delivered in time, but the wait was worth it. A minor issue was that the non-native English speaking printers had a typo on the spine of the Aftermath book ("Aftremath"). But I haven't spotted any typos in the Paris book.

I rushed getting my Shock and Injury cards from DriveThruRPG and that was a mistake. There were a few typos and errors found, but the PDFs have been corrected and if you order these cards now, they've been corrected. But be wary of secondary market cards (eBay) and make sure you're receiving the corrected ones. The incorrect cards can easily be spotted. The Shock cards have the word "Injury" on the detail side of the card instead of the word "Shock."

Conclusion

I really love this new iteration of GUMSHOE and the Paris setting is wonderful and perfect for The King in Yellow. Absinthe, Impressionistic Art, the Can-can, Moving pictures, Cafes, all make an interesting soup of science and art.

p.s. I haven't gotten to the other 3 books yet: The Wars, Aftermath, This is Normal Now.

p.s.s. I've finally gotten to the other 3 books. Review blog post is here.