Why Basic Roleplaying?

Once in a while, when talking about Of Hearth & the Harrowing I am asked why I made it as a Basic Roleplaying game, rather than as a D&D 5e conversion, Savage Worlds setting, or some other popular existing game system. There are several answers to that question, and all of them are true. But it is really the preponderance (not me knowing the word, but having to look up how to spell it...) of all the reasons that pushed me in that direction.

First, I like the mechanics of character progression. The system uses a very old school CRPG feeling advancement of use a skill, you might get better at it. This gives a very free form progression system that is unhindered by classes or other on rails advancement.

Second, I think the core mechanic of d100 roll under a modified skill percentage is very easy to use at the table. One mechanic from BRP I dropped was Special Successes. It does give a more granular success/failure mechanic, but with Crits/Success/Failure/Fumble, I feel like there is plenty there, and the extra level between Crits and Success have never really been a big deal in the hundreds of BRP games I've run over the years. Third, this is the system I've written for professionally the most. Between Call of Cthulhu, Runequest, Lords of the Middle Sea, and now Of Hearth & the Harrowing more of my professional writing has been in BRP than out of it. Add in the work I did for Imperium Maledictum (another d100 system) and it really just makes sense. Not that writing for other system is harder, its just more familiar.

Fourth, the license is completely open. You can use the text of the SRD in your product. While I have modified it enough that its nearly unrecognizable as the same text, it is a great starting point.

Finally, and this is the most important point, the system works really well with the danger and world I built. It is a fantasy survival horror game. If you dropped it into Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition it would be a completely different game! It would not feel the same. Combat in BRP is deadly, though if you are playing in a fantasy setting like Of Hearth & the Harrowing you can make up for some it with magic. So, there you have it, BRP is the right system for the game, and there is why. Depending on how this game does, maybe the next game won't be BRP, or maybe it just becomes the house system for all InCharacter Games' products. We shall see, only time and success, or lack there of, will determine that.