The UGE Review: Basic Roleplaying 2023

The 2008 edition of Chaosium's Basic Roleplaying (BRP), a solid book with a bright yellow cover and distinctive cover design, is often referred to as the "Big Golden Book" or BGB. In terms of impact, it's one of the most significant RPG releases in the history of the hobby.


Often referred to as a systems tool-kit, it could also be thought of as a compendium, a collection of games. The BGB effectively contains RuneQuest, Call of Cthulhu, Stormbringer, and the outline of a system for sci-fi and supers, all based on a direct and highly playable system and a collection of spot rules that easily scales in complexity and detail. If the BGB has a weakness, the number of options can be overwhelming and there are a lot of choices to navigate from the idea of a game to play at a table. But as someone who had spent years with RuneQuest 3, applied as a generic base for fantasy, it was a seamless transition from the BGB to a successful campaign set in Middle-earth.


BRP in 2023 comes in a revised edition subtitled "Universal Game Engine" and so the UGE is the new BGB, though it shares the same iconic cover illustration. The virtues of BRP are are still fully present. The system is consistent and flexible. In practice, one of the most astounding things about a book the size of BRP is that it mostly stays behind you on the shelf. Once the characters are generated and the GM has prepared the scenario, everything you need to play is in the sheets and notes before you. Then you can close the book and put it aside. Since most checks are percentile, roll under against a given value, it's easy to glance down and assess the chances of success without a stack of modifiers; and since it's skill-based, there isn't a reference-sheet of special abilities and cases-by-case instances to consider. The rules fit together logically, and so it's easy to house-rule and adapt from a few basic principles.


Overall, any edition version of BRP feels grounded and believable. Hit points are tied to Strength and Constitution, so they don't keep escalating and soar above the level of stress and damage a person could conceivably take. Skill gains are incremental and tied to actions the character takes. The aim is not accurate simulation but verisimilitude, the sense that the fiction is credible and runs true to plausibility and expectation.


The revisions for UGE are well-chosen and necessary. Character generation is slightly streamlined and the options are better explained. The skill descriptions have less detail of the various levels of success (critical, special, etc.), which were not often referenced at the table. The bestiary section displays characteristic scores in a horizontal table, which saves space and is easier to read. The illustration style is more coherent and the images are generally interesting and evocative, although they tilt somewhat to historical settings.


The gains in layout make it all the more unfortunate that the tables are presented in a squintingly small typeface, which is hard to read even with sharp eyesight (or glasses on) and bright lighting. No one, for instance, is going to be able to roll and then quickly look up a result on the Major Wounds Table in the middle of play. The need for readable tables alone is a good reason to keep one's old copy of the BGB at hand during a session.


Apart from that, I have a few minor gripes: scope for changes in BRP that the UGE could have included. Given the "universal" tag, it would be nice to have at least one version of a fantasy or pre-modern character sheet that didn't list modern skills. Noting will knock you out of the moment than your elf character player sorting though a list of skills that include Psychotherapy and Heavy Machinery. And, given that the system is meant to be scaleable to different power levels, why is there no option for giving magicians more power to deal damage in combat? A single magic spell level which yields 1d6 damage costs a sharp 3 power points, which means that on average a magician is spending almost a power point per point of damage dealt.


Of course, the UGE gives you the tools to dial up and down the complexity of your game and transfer concepts seamlessly between settings – with a little work – but that's why it's so powerful as a base system. UGE is an "old school" system in that it doesn't present a pre-packaged and thematically pre-scripted world for you to start in, but a familiar, grounded, and conceptually coherent system from which you can build your own worlds and adventures.

Play the (Disc)World

Here’s a thing that can sometimes happen when someone is interested in starting out with play the world or FKR gaming:

New Referee: I want to get started with FKR gaming.

FKR: Great! All you need are players ready to describe their character, a world to play, and an experienced referee to adjudicate.

New Referee: Well, I have some experience with other RPGs, but I’m not sure how to resolve actions without some sort of rules mechanics and guidance. What should I use?

FKR: Well, you’re the referee now. How about opposed rolls, roll high, percentiles, roll and read, dice chains, dice less?

New Referee: But I’m just getting started. Can I get some guidance on the mechanics and adjudication?

FKR: You’re the referee now. You decide.

And so it goes.

Now you can start on the Discworld

Need a clear set of FKR-ish* play the world rules with a clean resolution system and implicit character creation?

*Not entirely free kriegsspiel because the wargaming/combat “krieg” element is deprioritized. There are no combat rules per se, only general resolution – which can apply to combat.

Then find yourself a copy of the free Discworld QuickStart Guide from Modiphius, because this guide contains a complete and accessible set of rules for FKR resolution in a fictional world.

In this case, the world in question is Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, but consider what you get in this guide.

• A complete free-form resolution mechanic: the player describes their action, based on any element of their character sheet. The referee assigns an Outcome die from d4 to D12 based on the character’s traits and situation. The referee only ever rolls a d8 because the chance of success is relative, but this is also a nod to Discworld lore.
• Depending on the rolls, the referee resolves the consequences, from success to mixed success to consequences from Inconsequential [sic] to Minor, Major, and Exceptional. These occupy the character sheet until resolved. The character has a small pool of Luck to help manage consequences.
• Sample characters, and since characters a wholly based on description, it’s easy to infer that character generation is just a matter of specifying Organization, Background, Niches (2), Quirks (2), and Core (belief). In effect, a complete character gen system.

The system suits an open, conversational, and humorous style of play ideal for the Discworld. And to be sure, the forthcoming full rule book will be mostly to structure and fill out the fictional world on the back of the Great Turtle. But for the new FKR referee, the point is that everything in the QuickStart edition can be adapted to the world YOU want to play. 

Consider, for example, a character from a darker, sword and sorcery city:

• Organization: Thieves Guild of Blackwillow
• Background: Raised in the shadow of the Noose
• Niche: Deft pickpocket
• Niche: A stab in the dark
• Quirk: Often overlooked
• Quirk: The meddling priest sees your good side
• Core: Slip by, right under their noses

In time, you’ll want to tweak the rules – that’s what a FKR referee does. There’s no reason, for example, to always roll a d8 in your game, if you want to tilt the odds further. And if you’re ready, then you can start at the Many Ways Inn, and let your own world take shape. But the core of the Modiphius Discworld system puts a whole world of FKR at your fingertips, with clear mechanics and examples.

Roll 6 or Roll 9: Blade and Haversack

 A quick note on a recent find. Blade & Haversack on the msjx blog is a neat 2d6 iteration of the concepts of Sword & Backpack, but I also noticed that the B&H target numbers – 6 for Average, 9 for Hard, 11 for “nigh Impossible” – align very closely with the scale for Roll and Read on 2d6, as seen here.

Maybe it’s because 6 is half of 12, but there’s something quite satisfying about rolling for 6+ for an average or routine task, where skill and circumstances come together, and the next check of 9 neatly flips the chances of success to about 1/3.

B&H also introduces Stress Points to manage “hits” and other categories of challenge, like multiple successes to unpick a complicated lock. Like any other ultralight system, including Sword & Backpack, you need to do some of the development yourself to arrive at a playable game. But it’s nice to see how these principles converge.