Aelwyn

Maybe they don't know they're working for a Lunar. Duke Raus could hire them to perform a task through an intermediary, and they could find out later who their employer is. That might make for an interesting reveal. What do the characters do--go back on their word and betray the one who has already paid them, or swallow their pride and take the money? Or if things go south during the task, maybe they get rescued by Duke Raus, who reveals he was their employer--now they're doubly in his debt. If the players are curious about the person who has hired them, finding out who their employer is could be an adventure in itself.

Judging from the art, I would guess somewhere from northern India and the Himalayas over to central China and Cambodia. Although I usually think of Central Asia as the "stans"--Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan. This might be useful: http://omniatlas.com/maps/southasia/19241013/ http://omniatlas.com/maps/russia/19200103/ You can change the dates with the drop-down menu. Some interesting stuff: 1920: Soviet revolutionaries take over the Khanate of Khiva and the Emirate of Bukhara. 1921: Reza Khan stages a coup d'etat, becoming the effective ruler of Iran. In 1925 he officially deposes Ahmad Shah. 1923: Nepal signs independence treaty with British Empire. 1928: Persia occupies Western Baluchistan with assistance from British.

I remember reading that two characteristics would be added together for base skills, ala more recent versions of Runequest. That would yield non-multiples of 5. I don't know if that decision has been changed, but it seems unlikely.

The version currently being sold by Chaosium, if it's the same one I bought last summer, is based on Big Gold Book + Enlightened Magic, but it is heavy on setting notes, medium to light on rules, and light on stats. So it would be VERY easy to use it with any RPG, D100 or not. I suspect After the Vampire Wars will be rewritten a little after the new Basic Essentials rules come out, and packaged with same, but that's a decision for Chaosium. From what I can tell, the new Basic Essentials is not out yet and has not been used in any existing product. Last I heard, a new version of Mythic Iceland was going to be the first such product.

I actually like the word conflict, but I missed most of the Forge Wars. To me, conflict can be violent, nonviolent, social, verbal, nonverbal, or almost anything where one force opposes another. It can describe a dance-off, a political campaign, a battle of the bands, a poetry recitation (if there's a chance you can fail), a starship battle, or two thugs slugging it out in a bar, or even something impersonal, like a climber v. a mountain. "Sequence" doesn't really describe those things. "Exchange" is better than "Sequence" if you're looking for an alternative. But "resolving a conflict" is something many people can understand--and that's what you're talking about. The GM wants something to happen; the players want something else to happen (or alternatively, the fictional villain/implacable force of nature/entropy "wants" something to happen, but the GM and players and the fictional characters want something else to happen). That's a conflict--the rules resolve that conflict. If you're worried about turning off people who don't like ideological wars, I would avoid talking too much about theory in the rules. Just tell us how to play the game. Don't compare the game to other games, and don't talk about game design history or theory. Give us maybe a paragraph or three in the introduction about what you think Revolution D100 is about and your ideas behind developing it. Then let the rules speak for themselves. I think "narrative" and "simulationist" are more highly charged than "conflict," and I would avoid those unless you think it's necessary to situate Revolution D100 along that particular continuum.

More info here... and here...

RQ6 has a number of nonlethal Special Effects: Bash (knockback), Blind Opponent, Compel Surrender, Damage Weapon, Disarm Opponent, Entangle, Grip, Pin Weapon, Stun Location, Take Weapon, Trip Opponent. Yes, often the house rule is, you only do lethal damage if you deliberately call a lethal shot. Doing so would have severe consequences for either a hero or a villain.

If Joseph Campbell had created an RPG setting, he would have made Glorantha. If your players aren't familiar with Joseph Campbell, that won't tell them anything. If they are, that will tell them almost everything. I would avoid saying that any one group is like a combination of five different Earth cultures. That's just confusing--there's no way to tell what parts of each culture are used, and people who aren't history or anthropology majors will be baffled. Just tell them that their characters are defined by culture and religion, and that there are many, many cultures and religions in this world. Describe a few examples--maybe Humakt, Orlanth, Storm Bull, Issaries, Chalana Arroy--and ask if those appeal to anyone. If a player isn't interested in the ones you pick out, ask what kind of character he or she is interested in. That probably comes after the pitch, though. You might even just show players the runes, along with their names and descriptions, and ask which ones appeal to them--if someone picks Death, you've got a Humakt worshipper.

Just to add on to the review I already posted, what I liked most about this book is how you could use the setting to do role-playing about current social issues. Characters might be veterans of the Vampire Wars and be dealing with post-traumatic stress or residual anger toward their opponents... whom they may now have to work with. They might be dealing with discrimination against fey or harassment by the police. They could be dealing with corruption in high places by an elder vampire or a monitor highly placed in the government. That won't appeal to everybody, but if that's not your cup of tea, you could also use it to do straight investigations or just kill a whole bunch of peeps. There's no requirement that you explore current issues, but it's there if you want to go down that road.

I'm going to concur with Mr. Scott. Blues shouters were musicians, mostly from the 1940s and 1950s, whose vocals were halfway between shouting and singing. Big Joe Turner is the most well known, but if you're interested, also check out Wynonie Harris, Tiny Bradshaw, H-Bomb Ferguson, and Bull Moose Jackson. Lyrics were often risque or advocated massive alcohol consumption.Tiny Bradshaw's "Snaggle Tooth Ruth" is particularly insane--it describes an out-of-control party that turns into a huge fistfight. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blues_shouter

Baulderstone, on a strictly legal basis, I agree, and as a content provider, I have some sympathy for people who want to protect their IP. But sometimes it's not worth the negative PR. In the case of the day care centers, Universal and Hanna-Barbera jumped in and offered to repaint the day care centers for free, using their own characters. Making Disney look very, very bad. http://www.snopes.com/disney/wdco/daycare.asp

Oh, crap, I need to change my signature.

This is a link to a story about a company that we may or may not be discussing and about which I have no comment: https://www.theselfemployed.com/law/disney-threatened-sue-daycare-centers/

I would agree with both of these. BRP is more simulationist; Revolution D100 is a descendant of both RQ6 and FATE.

It's neither light nor dark, because you could easily run either type of campaign. You could do everything from a very light campaign for very young children involving goblins, friendly ghosts, and talking animals, all the way up to something completely brutal where the characters end up alive but stuck on meathooks in the Siberian vampire enclave. Or perhaps the characters are the ones sticking the NPCs on meathooks, if they're into that. I got the early edition and wrote a review here: Sounds like Chaosium may fix most of the problems I noted. If the lamination problems are fixed, typos are fixed, and interior art is replaced, this will be a first-class product, even without pre-rolled characters and a ready-to-play scenario.