As Ambros finally wakes up with the sun shinning on his face, still groggy trying to figure Out what happened. As Ambros was finally able to see straight, he realized that he was slumped Over a horse. Confusion sets in very quickly, as Ambros was able to get into the saddle and finally was able to slow down the horse.
Ambros: “Why the hell did you guys knock me out?” as Ambros rubs the cheek where he got hit.
Sir Terric: “You tend to be noisy, since we had to leave discreetly. There w
Character Sheet: Ambros - PK Sheet
As cold weather comes and goes during the winter, many bandits have begun to raid the lands near Sarum as they have prospered under King Constantine. Without a high king many have become restless and bolder than before, as there is no judge to hold them of their crimes amongst each other. Most knights were reluctant to help, as they were worried about what is to come under the new rule of Constants and didn't want to up set the order of things in the curre
440 AD Ambros Character Sheet
PRE - LUE Winter Phase
Winter began like many others, fairly calm and peaceful to many around Britain. As winter continued, day by day the weather started to take a turn for the worst as it started to come down harder. With blizzards hitting all over the country, travel have become extremely dangerous for many. For Ambros, it seems to only get worse as he found out the truth about this winter as his horse ended up breaking his lag.
[Weather]
Us
Early Spring
As the sun starts to rise and clouds start rolling in and light drizzle begins to fall from the skies. With the cool breeze coming in from the windows being left open from the servants, Squire Ambros appears above the blanks to survey what the weather looks like from his blankets. After a brief moment decided it was appropriate to sleep in, since he is now a squire and not a commoner like the rest of his family. As the morning starts to roll through, you can hear someone yelli
Starting the year 439 AD as Ambros becomes of age to become a squire, he has been assigned to Sir Terric. He[Sir Terric] was one of the last knights to try and turn him away as a squire since he is coming from common blood, but Sir Terric did this as a favor to High King Constantine. Many believe this is a huge mistake to allow an Irish commoner to become a squire no less a 7th son to join the ranks. There have been many rumors on how he attained squire hood, but will the truth come out before h
Books:
Cardini, Franco: L'avventura di un povero crociato
Runciman, Steven: A History of the Crusades
Ostrogorsky, Georg: History of the Byzantine State
France, John: Victory in the East: A Military History of the First Crusade
Tasso, Torquato: Gerusalemme Liberata
Howard, R.H.: Cormac Fitzgeoffrey saga, The Lion of Tiberias
Scott, Walter: Ivanhoe
Turtledove, Harry: The Misplaced Legion
Vaglio, Mariangela Galatea: La Saga di Bisan
As an example of Grandfather history generation and as background on the Normans...
Roberto d'Altavilla arrived in southern Italy in 1047 seeking fortune, accompanied by only five knights. He hoped his successful brothers would grant him a fief, but they refused. Determined, he sold his sword to the Lombard princes embroiled in their conflicts and began raiding their wealthy lands.
Among Roberto's original retinue was Ruggero, known as the "Homeless." Ruggero fought alongs
Starting glory: 2500
1047
Robert de Hauteville comes to southern Italy with only 5 knights. The PKs’ grandfather is one of them.
1d20 Result
Event
1
Died of random cause
2-17
Garrison duty
19-20
Raid (50 glory)
Character creation is as per the Paladins rulebook unless otherwise noted.
Step One: Personal data
Name: Norman name
Son number and age: Will depend on the family history and Father’s Class
Homeland: Apulia
Home: all PK currently live in Taranto, but see Father’s Class for place of origin
Culture: Norman
Liege Lord: Boemondo of Taranto
Step Two: Family
The PK all have the same grandfather. Roll each PK’s father’s class. If one of them
The previous blog entry described how clans work in the Runequest rules. However, in Dragon Pass, almost all clans are organised into tribes and tribal federations, which add an extra level of complexity and options. As such, to a clan member, being part of a tribe offers opportunities that a clan by itself could not support.
In Runequest a tribe is an alliance or federation of clans. Tribes typically number in the thousands or more, so it is unlikely for anyone to know everyone. Unlike a c
Questworlds is Chaosium's rules and prep-lite RPG system. Fundamental to it is the opposed roll, in which a skill is rolled against a resistance, using 'highest rolled value as a tiebreak i both rolls succeed. The produces a table of probabilities that looks like this:
This table skill on the left, and resistance on top. Both are unrolled so 22 is 42. This table has 2 key desirable properties:
thanks to the tiebreak rule, it almost always (at least 95% of the time) p
The previous blog entry described Rune Cults in abstract rules terms. This by itself is enough for running an adventure-focused game, where rune cults serve a game function much like that of D&D character classes.
However, many people prefer a community-focused game, in the style of the Red Cow campaign or Six Seasons in Sartar. This requires a somewhat deeper understanding of how the rules portray the setting, in particular what a clan is.
In the RQ:G rules, the term clan is used
For Rune and Spirit Magic,Rivers of Sartar uses a lightly modified version of the RQ:G cult rules that underlay the supplements in the Cults of Runequest (CoR) line. So in order to explain these rules, and justify their existence, it is necessary to first explain how the official rules work.
Hopefully this will also prove useful to those who want to stick with the Rules As Written (RAW), or make their own preferred tweaks.
RQ:G RAW
A PC is born into a clan, which is normally
The Festival
The first day of the year is Freezeday of Disorder week, Sea season. This day is holy to Voria the Spring Virgin, the goddess of new beginnings, youth and innocence. In Nochet, this is traditionally celebrated by a mass run. Horns call children, and the young-at-heart, into the streets. There, they simply run until exhaustion. There is no start or finish line, no winning or losing, just run until you drop. Wherever you fall, when you recover you look around for a sign of Voria'
One of the three modes of play that these rules support is free-form play, where every contest is resolved with a single opposed roll. For some GMs and groups, this by itself is enough. Many successful campaigns have been run in this way, ever since it was adapted for RPGs from the style of wargame invented by Tom Mouat.
However, sometimes you might want a contest that isn't resolved so quickly. One that fills more of the session, one that has several twists and turns that generate an emerg
When a contest resolves, whether simple or ongoing, if the result is not to any contestants liking, they may reject it. Normally this will because they lost, but a particularly confident contestant might be unsatisfied in the level of success they achieved and try for more.
In order to do so, if they are losing, they must accept a number of consequences sufficient to bring the contest back to being a draw. If they were winning, they must give up successes instead. Either way, at this point
There are many BRP-derived, Runequest-inspired fantasy role-playing game systems; ones I am aware of include Mythras, OpenQuest, SpeedRune, SimpleQuest, Revolution D100, Jackals and Legend.
This is mine[1].
For people who are not me, it's main selling point is that it is a unofficial adaptation of some of the principles behind the QuestWorld game engine to Chaosium's world of Glorantha. In particular, it changes certain aspects of the QuestWorlds core mechanics to support the direct us
How to roll
In Rivers of Sartar, all rolls are opposed rolls, between contestants, each of which is using an ability. Each contestant simultaneously rolls a single D100 (the success D100), and zero or more D20s (the bonus D20).
The option of using different numbers of bonus D20 provides an additional dimension by which different situations may be handled in game:
if a contestant has advantage, roll 2 bonus die; use the higher one.
In an ongoing contest, a sequence of rolls are used to resolve a single contest. As with freeform play, success or failure simply changes the situation which must be dealt with.
Compared to freeform play, within that contest, additional rules and guidelines apply, and so the need for GM fiat is somewhat lessened.
A contest normally ends with a decisive roll, which will indicate the degree of success or failure the contest resulted in.
A PC may
This short cameo is designed to introduce players to the basics of the rules in a low-threat environment. Player characters are 11 or 12 year old children in Nochet (N:AG), the largest city in all Glorantha. At the start of play, nothing else is known about them; they will gain characteristics and skills during play.
In Nochet, children of that age spend their morning doing chores, and evening with their families. But for much of the afternoon, they are free to play in the streets. The gam
The Lyksos mini-campaign is intended as a step-by-step tutorial for these rules. It is based on Harald Smith's Nochet, Queen of Cities, and in particular the adventurer's guide (N:AG).
It is designed to be run interleaved with RQ:G character creation, so that characters emerge through play, start out knowing each other. By default, when going through the first two steps of family history, it is suggested to pick an answer by consensus. This means the players will have a common authority,
Rivers of Sartar supports three modes: free-form game play, structured contests and tactical combat. A given game may use any or all of these, by simply switching between them as required for pacing and to maintain player interest.
In free-form play, the rolls to be made should be based on the logic of the situation as it unfolds. Each roll is standalone, in that there are no built-in mechanical consequences for succeeding or failing. There is no defined time scale.
Instea
Just wishing everybody here a Happy New Year in 2024. I've been looking back at 2023, and the single biggest gaming-related event was the OGL fiasco, and the new ORC License.
Let's hope that 2024 will be better for us, with loads more Mythras content coming down the line.
