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.

A faster BRP

There's no doubt here that Basic Roleplaying is an excellent system that's surprisingly easy for beginners, adaptable, and can support extended play. But even if you were to leap in with the Basic Roleplaying SRD as your compact rules, many of the systems grouped under the OSR label, and early versions of D&D itself, have one significant advantage for new players: it's quicker to roll up a new character and get started.

Now, with a group of interested adults 30–60 minutes rolling characteristics, assigning and calculating skills, deriving HP and MP and the rest, creates a substantial, interesting character sheet that will serve well for a long time. But it would be fun, sometimes, to just create a character and go in half the time or less.

To that end, here are some notes towards faster BRP characters. The skills and professions offered heavily favor fantasy and historical worlds.

Faster characters for Basic Roleplaying

Characteristics

Generate the BRP characteristics—STR, DEX, CON, SIZ, INT, POW, APP—according to the SRD. Calculate Hit Points (HP), Magic Points (MP), and Damage bonus (Db), as well as characteristic rolls, using the same procedures.

Adventuring Skills

The standard BRP skill list is comprehensive but long, and skills are drawn from many incompatible eras. These skills are adjusted for fantasy adventuring.

These skills are common to all characters at the starting percentages given. 

• Jump 45%
• Climb 55%
• Perception 35%: replaces Listen, Spot, Sense, Insight, etc. May also be used to track targets with a suitable profession indicated.
• Stealth 25%: Used for all covert movement and covers hiding also. Hiding (without moving) is generally easier (+20% bonus).
• Swim 30% or DEX x 5 if Lucky or approved by GM as suitable to background.
• Throw 45%
• Brawl 45%: fighting with hands and feet, or commonplace and improvised weapons (knives, sticks, etc.).
• First Aid 45%

Professional Skills

Select a broad profession, and figure the related skills accordingly. 

Warrior

Any martial profession, from soldiers to wandering mercenaries to mounted knights.

• Ride (DEX x 5%): may substitute another mode of transport or Strategy (INT x 5%).
• Warrior (Average STR, INT, DEX) x 5% in 3 weapons (maximum 75%).

Expert

Any profession relying on specialist knowledge and training, from scholars to diplomats, merchants, spies, and performers.

• Literacy INT x 5%
• Expertise (Field) INT x 5%: field may be any area of specialist training: medicine, exploration, trade,  engineering, performance, spy-craft, alchemy, and so on.

Magician

Any profession using magical or spiritual powers. such as wizards, sorcerers, witches, mystics, and so on.

• Literacy INT x 5%
• Spells: define four spells at INT x 3% chance to cast

Rogue

Shadier pursuits, often developing expertise on the opposite side of the law. Rogues may be thieves, burglars, outlaws, or merely drifters who live by their wits.

• Sleight DEX x 5%: replaces the Fine Manipulation skill, and tends towards pick-pocketing, snaffling and concealing small items, and so on.
• Tinker DEX x 5%: crafting and improvising with materials at hand, but also tampering with devices such as locks and traps, forcing chests and windows, and so forth.

Hybrid

With approval, combine two professional skills from two professions. The Magician profession spells are too demanding to master with another profession.

Background Skills

As a finishing touch, distribute INTx5 across all skills, including weapons, which have the same base skill rating as the SRD. Can be used to acquire or improve spells with GM approval.

No skill for a starting character can total more than 75%.

Identity

Record Name, Profession, Background, other personal details.

Back to Basics

Add suitable equipment, and you're now ready to play using any flavor of the Basic Roleplaying rules, although the lightest version can be found in the SRD.

Roll on the random notes table

 It's been a while: some random notes and impressions.

Roll a d6:

1. Warhammer FRP 4E

The Old World is still as cool, dark, and evocative as ever. This is the one "almost played" game that I've known of for years and never played a session. This edition is massive, detailed, comprehensive, wonderfully illustrated. But there are so many fiddly rules, stats, statuses to manage. XP converted to individual skill percentages! While there are plenty of enhancements to the original system, there are also too many gritty sub-systems.

• The map on the inside cover should be evocative, but the coloring is too green-grey, the detail too fine, to make it engaging, let alone readable.
• Years ago, I converted the classic WHFRP adventure "Night of Blood" to RuneQuest 3, and it was an easy conversion and an excellent adventure in play.
• All the classes and careers would make an excellent sourcebook to convert to Whitehack (see below).
• Even better, convert to BRP using the SRD (see below).

2. Whitehack 3E

A hack of the original "White Box" edition of D&D, Whitehack uses the familiar design elements: the same six ability scores, levels, accumulating hit points and Hit Dice (HD), armor class, saving throws, classes, and XP advancement.

But these original rules have been ingeniously adapted into a flexible, compact system of their own. The profession-like classes, Fighter, Thief, and Wizard, have been converted to true archetypes: the Strong, Deft, and Wise. You then assign your own groups—species, vocations, associations—and abilities to create professions and sub-classes that can be wholly unique. For the Wise, magic "miracles" are a free-form system to duplicate any powers. Sometimes, the slightly awkward generic phrasing—groups, slots, miracles—makes it hard to follow how these choices mesh together to make a character.

Although it's the version of D&D I'd play if I were to play D&D, it still has the same features of the original. Armor makes you harder to hit, but this doesn't scale much with your chance of hitting or your chance of hitting something else, so you gain an abstract reserve of hit points instead. Monsters have HD alone, so their chance to hit you is always proportional to the number of hits they can take. You chase experience points, and at certain points acquire levels that grant instant access to new abilities that you perhaps didn't have or even practice before.

On the other hand, Whitehack has some brilliant subsystems, like bases to represent patrons and other extraordinary adventuring party resources, and it's concise and clear and engaging. And it has some neat random tables that would work for solo play as well as in-game inspiration.

• There are a few intriguing pages in Whitehack about converting ability scores to use those of other systems. This means with relatively little work, you could convert content from almost any ability score and hit points system to run with Whitehack. I looked at the old ICE Middle Earth Role-Playing (MERP) modules and the idea was very tempting (Strength=St, Dexterity=Ag, etc.).

3. The One Ring 2E

I only have the PDF, but this is evidently a beautiful book. But you don't play the book design or the illustrations, you play the system, and the rules, though no doubt strengthened and improved, seem to me to have the same issues as with the first edition. As in my previous review, the rules are evocative, but my concern is that in trying to guide play through a Middle-earth experience the systems tend towards being prescriptive or procedural, with multiple conditions and narrative elements to track for every activity. When journeying, or in encounters with major NPCs, this ends up pushing the players' significant decisions away from their sense of the world and towards a series of dice rolls.

• On the other hand, the descriptions of cultures and locations, the way that Eriador is presented, is exactly how I'd like to play that old corner of Middle-earth. BRP would make a better fit, but also the freedom of XD20.

4. Basic Roleplaying SRD

Chaosium has published the core rules of Basic Roleplaying (BRP) as an SRD, and it's astonishing that there isn't more discussion about this. The BRP system in the SRD is truly basic, in that it's a base, a foundation, for any range of games. It presents only a compact version of the core rules. Sure, it lacks a detailed equipment list, bestiary, or magic system. But if you're a GM building your own campaign from your own sources, these are what you're designing or lifting from other sourcebooks already. 

• Download it, print a copy, decide on your skills list—you could run your game in the Old World or Middle-earth with this. (OK, for WHFRP you'll have to add the Consume Alcohol skill.)

5. XD20 2E

The original XDM: X-treme Dungeon Mastery was insightful, inspiring, and influential, but as I noted in my review, it was also hastily written, oddly organized, and not always adequately edited. So I was keen to join the second edition kickstarter. With the PDF of the page proofs in hand, I've confined myself to checking out the revised in-house system, or XD20, before the printed book arrives. 

It's a promising start. The second edition XD20 is now presented in one version, the simple rules for creating your character makes sense, and the core system—roll a d20, roll high to succeed and then roll again for effect—is elegant and flexible.

I still have no idea what the stat "WAH" means, but I know exactly what all the stats do. It's maddeningly unclear if the combat system means enemies would roll each round exactly like PCs or if it's all combined in the PCs' roll, but it would work either way. It's a system designed to wing it, but now you can wing it with elegance and speed.

• If TAC=Strong, PSYCH=Deft, and WAH=Wise, you basically have the means at hand to play any fantasy setting.

6. Roll a d100 instead

While reading a certain tome mentioned above, a compressed d100 system kept running through my head. For some actual rules tinkering, see below.

The situation:

• Grim 15
• Perilous 30
• Risky 50
• Uncertain 70
• Favorable 85

+/-10 for unusual circumstances

Roll d100 under the situation number to prevail.

Character can use a Quality to reprise a roll (reroll a single die) or change the situation (if feasible).

EXAMPLE: Linz, the boatman, find himself on the river as a possibly magical storm sweeps through. Suddenly, the situation is Perilous! Linz decides to try and run to shore. The first roll is 42! Linz can reroll the 40 die to try and reach safety, or use the next round to steer into the current to find a better course (roll Risky).

Your character has a Station in life (roll situation and read accordingly), a significant Characteristic (Strong, Quick, Smart, etc.) a current Career and two related Qualities.

A character has Toughness (3) points and sometimes armor points (1-3) with which to fend off wounds. Each wound taken then potentially makes their situation worse.

Looking at BRP Worlds of Wonder "Magic World"

Recently, the Tinkerage has been looking at the original "Magic World" supplement from the Basic Roleplaying Worlds of Wonder (WoW) set (Steve Perrin and Gordon Monson). This is not to be confused with the later Magic World (2012) by Willis, et al., although both titles share the same BRP roots. But the earlier Magic World is well worth considering, especially as an excellent, light version of the BRP ruleset for fantasy gaming.

Magic World extends on and requires the core WoW Basic Roleplaying booklet, but the system is a minor masterpiece for quick, ready-to-play rules. These days, it's hard to find in print, and the gamer inclined to research this online will have to dig into the wayback machine archives.

Magic World has about the quickest character generation I've come across in the BRP line, almost as fast as Basic D&D. A player can choose to simply roll the characteristics and then start play with the default BRP skills and scores. Or, they can select from one of four professions: warrior, rogue, sage, and sorcerer. Each profession provides some prior experience and skills, which are usually a sum, or multiple of the average, of several characteristics (for example, warriors pick up three weapons at the average of STR, CON, and DEX x 5%). Although these may seem like class descriptions, there are no restrictions on eventual cross-training, and each profession suggests a variety of possible backgrounds. Even the sage is a viable scholar-adventurer, who may be anything from a healer, to a merchant, to an elf-friend. One can imagine rolling-up a Magic World adventurer in relatively short order, selecting a few professional skills, and filling in the default skills as the game goes on. A character will be relying on good initial rolls for good skills, but that's where a little player skill, a willingness to play a character rather than an optimized build, comes in.

Compared to a modern system the line between skill and skill description is sometime blurry and requires some interpretation. The "Cut Purse" skill, for example (DEX x 5% for rogues), includes "skill to Pick Pockets, Cut Purses, Remove Brooches, etc.," which could all be rejiggered as "Thievery" or "Sleight" on the character sheet.

The magic system is compact but robust, with each spell having its own percentile chance to cast (like one of the magic systems in the BGB). Unlike the BGB, Magic World spells are relatively effective (dealing1d6 damage per magic point/level, for instance), so starting sorcerers don't feel under-powered.

Finally, the combat system, although simple, includes scope for critical hits and fumbles.

Recently, reading through Roan Studios' The Bay of Spirits setting book, which is beautifully illustrated but lightly stated out only for D&D, the thought occurred that the ideal would be a compact, robust ruleset that would make it easy to generate characters and play in (almost) any fantasy setting. WoW Magic World seems to fit the bill, and it's interesting to speculate what might have been if this version of Magic World, revised and clarified, had been the basis for Chaosium's later releases.

Notes for BRP Encounters

Encounter profiles, or "stat blocks", can be a major stumbling block in scenario design for the busy GM. You're trying to ready an adventure. You have a location, you've sketched out the situation, considered the options and flow of events, and then you have to set up the details of the encounters.

RuneQuest is a fine game, but for any version of RuneQuest this would mean stopping to fill rows of characteristics, skills, and AP and HP for every hit location.

Even for BRP (without hit locations) or Magic World, if you go by the book you complete something like this:

Hill Bandit

STR 12
CON 10
SIZ 13
INT 10
POW 9
DEX 14
APP 10

Move: 8
Hit Points: 12
Damage Bonus: +1d4

Attacks: Hand Axe 35%, 1d6+1+1d4, Recurved bow 35%, 1d8+2

Skills: Hide 50%, Move Quietly 50%, Ride 75%

Armor: 1d6-1 points leather

Notice the space it takes on the page, and the need to note every detail for a bandit who might be taken down by one or two hits. Of course, you could rely on a bestiary or a published scenario, but you're still scanning and copying out details when the encounter starts.

Now, in an old issue of White Dwarf, you might come across a Stormbringer encounter profile somewhat like this:

Hill Bandit

STR 12  CON 10  SIZ 13  INT 10  POW 9 DEX 14  APP 10  HP 12

Attacks: Hand Axe 35%, 1d6+1+1d4, Recurved bow 35%, 1d8+2

Skills: Hide 50%, Move Quietly 50%, Ride 75%

Armor: 1d6-1 points leather

Which is certainly much more efficient and easier to create. We can work with this to create an encounter notation that takes a fraction of the time a full stat block requires.

The Encounter Note

Here's the format for a compressed BRP note-style encounter line:

Encounter: description

HP x, DEX x, STATS x, Mov x

Attack % (damage), Armour (x)

Skill x%

Notes

Which for the bandit above might look like:

Hill Bandit: Tough, sneaky ambusher

HP 12, DEX 14

Hand axe 35% (1d6+1d4), Bow (1d8+2), Leather (2)

Sneak & Hide 50%

Key

Encounter = basic title: description = how this encounter will be played and described

HP x = Hit Points come first; they matter most (and they also show roughly how tough this encounter is)

DEX x = DEX, because the next thing you need to know is the DEX-rank for actions in a round

STATS x = any other characteristics (STR, CON, SIZ, INT, POW, APP) that are significant in this encounter or exceptional for the character; if they're average or not likely to be used, leave out and make them up on the fly

Mov x = movement, but only if faster or slower than standard

Attack % (damage) = combat skill and (damage + damage bonus), Armour (x) = armour type (points)

Skill x% = any significant skills (don't worry about the right name; you know what they're for)

Notes = any other plays/notes that are relevant

The idea in this format is to keep the most important information foremost and minimize clutter and unnecessary detail.

On Magic World

Chaosium has now reclaimed the rights to RuneQuest and Glorantha, and we're given to understand that these combined will become their banner fantasy RPG product, while a new BRP Essentials becomes the root system for a loose constellation of BRP inspired games. This leaves the Basic Roleplaying book (BRP) as a sort of attic collection of rules, and Magic World, previously the core rulebook for the nascent BRP fantasy line, is left out in the cold.

We have plenty of time for RuneQuest as a rules set, but Glorantha is not our fantasy lozenge floating on an infinite sea. Its massive timeline, overlapping pantheons, entangled myths, and cultural melange are fascinating but too hard to buy in to, like a club whose rules are too obscure to encourage joining, especially when we're looking for a world of our own to create (which is probably a slipstream version of Middle-Earth and the world of Firetop Mountain, illustrated by Russ Nicholson). Consequently, it might be time to take a closer look at Magic World before it slips out of view.

In many ways, Magic World exhibits the strengths and weaknesses of the recent BRP era at Chaosium. Its rules are a compilation of some of the best of the BRP percentile, skill-based system: smooth and easy to pick up, especially if you're familiar with any other iteration. Character generation in particular is probably one of the easiest tasks in the BRP family: roll Characteristics, calculate secondary scores (HP, MP, damage bonus, skill category modifiers) and then add set percentiles (60% at most) to a specified number of skills. Combat, once you decode the wonky presentation, is also quick and intuitive (there are no location hit points to slow you down, and only one kind of special or critical). Overall, it's a highly playable system and probably an excellent place to get into your own version of Middle-Earth or Allansia.

On the other hand, the rules are clearly recycled from earlier systems: the Chaosium Stormbringer RPG in particular and RuneQuest III. This leaves us reading some eerily familiar passages, and tumbling over rules that don't apply, such as references to fatigue in the bestiary. Of course, there are errata, but the point is that the errata are too long. And the wider point is that the presentation suffers from this copy-and-paste approach. The BRP combat sequence, for example, has a fair few steps but they all flow fairly cleanly: declare intent, set initiative, roll, compare attack and parry/dodge, assign results. But the "Combat" chapter is unnecessarily long, and the effect is somewhat scattershot. Skimming headings, you see "Actions in a Round", then "Resolving Combat", then "Order of Actions", then "Actions", then "Resolution" and yet the next section resumes "Hand-to-Hand Combat" with "Game Procedures" – how many times are we told about actions and resolution? Compare this to the tight presentation in the BRP Quickstart, and you realize that the whole chapter should have been thoroughly adapted and revised, especially for new players.

The reused artwork, a mishmash of styles and settings, similarly does not always capture the intended feel of the game, and although the sorcery magic system is serviceable, since it's based on the spells from Stormbringer, which were themselves added on to a system mainly designed around summoning and binding Moorcockian demons, the spell selection is not particularly inspiring. To play a sorcerer, your choices revolve mainly around spells that enhance or diminish effects (such as damage, armor, or characteristics) or a number of nasty offensive magics, reflecting the chaos influence of Stormbringer magic. That's not especially a problem if you want a low-magic campaign (there are no fireballs or lightning bolts here) or to grab your spell ideas from other sources, but the book is called Magic World after all, but offers only a few interesting or engaging spells.

The sample setting, the Southern Reaches, is more like Roman Britain than medieval Europe, a former frontier where first supernatural powers ruled before retreating, and where an empire has now replaced the roaming tribes of humans and orcs. It's effectively a colonial province, and designed with plenty of built-in conflict, with the return of the shadowy, shape-shifting fay and tensions between the two ruling houses presenting the most potential for adventure. The Southern Reaches are therefore an excellent sample setting, but they sit only lightly on top of the main rules. The rules for Allegiance between Light, Shadow, and Balance, for instance, would work nicely in heroic fantasy but it's not clear how they apply in the Southern Reaches, or to the fay. It might have been better to explore how the Magic World rules could be used to run a variety of different fantasy settings with varying themes and tones, as per the excellent guidelines in the "Settings" chapter of the BRP rulebook.

Given time and more design and editing, Magic World could have been an excellent product, but it now sits uncomfortably between being the "Fantasy BRP" and a minor game due to be eclipsed by RuneQuest and Glorantha. Depending on the quality and design of the new BRP Essentials, it could remain a fine go-to game for fantasy adventure, but its chance to capture the high ground among fantasy RPGs has passed. Not a fumble by any means, but a hit, parried.

BRP for Middle-earth

Over the last few years, I've had great success running a Middle-earth campaign in Basic Roleplaying (BRP) using the compiled rules from the BRP "Big Gold Book" (BGB).

Why BRP? Because it's a very flexible rules-medium system which runs smoothly at the table and makes sense even to beginners, and once the rules are understood in principle there's little need to frequently reference the rule book. The relatively realistic rules fit with the tone of Middle-earth, the details and the sense of hardship, but there are still opportunities for heroism. Combat is swift and decisive. And most of what a player and the GM need to know is located on the character sheet.

But because BRP is such a broad collection of options, here are the particular options I use for adventures in Middle-earth.

I'm also sharing my BRP-ME character record sheets, as character sheets in BRP contain a lot of rules information, as well as my thinking on this adaptation.

Character creation

• For skill point allocation, use the BRP heroic option (325 points), so that character can be highly capable in at least a few areas. However, no skill should begin at higher than 75%, as 80% is the point were success begins to feel almost automatic. 
• Use the personal point pool (INTx10) for custom and cultural skills. 
• The extra skill points from personality type option (Step 6) are not used.
• I also use skill category modifiers to add a connection from ability to skill for characters, but prefer the simpler bonuses (based on INT or DEX, see p. 31). In future, I plan on basing Communication on APP/2, Physical on CON/2, and Combat on STR/2).
• For typical Middle-earth races, such as elves, dwarves, or hobbits, I use the stats in the creatures section of the BGB or the old Runequest 3 Creature Book, making adjustments on the fly as necessary. As a rule, the tall Edain get a bonus for SIZ.

Skills

• Obviously, many of the BGB skills, from Psychotherapy to Science to Demolitions, are not suitable for Middle-earth, so strip these out.
• Not caring for the clunky skill name Fine Manipulation, I use Devise to represent tampering with locks, traps, and other small mechanism (in any case, mechanical locks will be very rare in Middle-earth).
• All characters have a knowledge of their own culture equal to their Own Language skill.
• I use the skill Bearing rather than Etiquette. Bearing represents how well characters carries themselves in social situations, whether the rules of etiquette are known to them or not: think of the first meeting with the Riders of Rohan, or Frodo greeting the elves in the woods, or even Bilbo welcoming unexpected dwarves into his parlour.
• I allow martial characters to train in the Martial Arts skill, representing their combat discipline, be it the Dunadan longsword or elvish blade. This is a very powerful skill, which should advance at no more than 1% a step, to a maximum of DEX+STR. It reflects the fearsomeness we see in characters like Boromir or Aragorn, who can slay many foes with a single strike.

In general, characters make the most use of their weapons skills, as well as Spot and Stealth and Track. First Aid is often in use. Insight is a popular skill with my players, for getting a read on NPCs.

Combat options

• To speed combat, use Hit Points with Major Wounds (not location hit points).
• My players, however, are particularly fond of aimed shots with missile weapons. I assign these a difficult rating, but adjudicate a Major Wound like effect if the shot hits a particular target (such as the knee joint of a troll).

Fatigue

The RuneQuest 3 fatigue points option being too cumbersome to track, I use a simple fatigue check, to represent the weariness that often afflicts characters in Middle-earth. Fatigue is based on a Stamina roll. The first failure inflicts a -10% weariness penalty. The second failure makes all rolls difficult due to fatigue. The final failed roll brings exhaustion. This Stamina roll is adjusted by whatever amount current encumbrance exceeds STR (if Enc is not more than STR, there is no penalty).

Magic

Magic can accomplish grand and marvellous things in Middle-earth, but it is also rare and often subtle. And it is not clear that the mortal races, such as common men and hobbits, can inherently use magic of any sort. Hence, the magic options in the BGB are not well-suited to Middle-earth. The simplest option is to restrict magic to figures other than adventuring PCs. However, if you think it necessary to introduce limited magic:

• Elves use spells similar to RuneQuest spirit magic, with effects that could be taken for extraordinary skill or grace (such as bladesharp or sure-shot or silence). A simple Luck roll is used to activate a spell. The spells add bonuses (5% /+1 per magic point) to actions.
• Wizardry, if used at all, should be skill-based and centred on certain skills or areas of study, such as Smoke and Fire, Silence and Disguise, Beasts and Birds, and so on.
• All spells that dominate the will of others are sorceries, and inherently corrupting.

Finally, the BRP Central site downloads page has a wealth of options and rules for BRP styled Middle-earth, based loosely on the Decipher Lord of the Rings RPG and many other sources.