sinisalo

That's why I use BFAs in my games (Big Fluorescent Arrows in case you wondered).

I just make it so that it really was the butler. Or I let them take me or I take them down a different adventure entirely and let them hear how, for example, the Yelmalio cult turned up in the village (after the PCs had effed it up and left) and executed all the children by impalement.

That was a tricky scenario from Shadows on the Borderlanmds and I remember there that important clues required *critical* rolls against human lore to get. Some of my players were surprised they had such a thing on their character sheets. 5% of 5% is what?. Quality writing though.

I've always felt if one or two prods don't work then the scenario should carry on to its sorry sad conclusion.

You're reading rq books in bed with your girlfriend? It was never that exciting surely?

I forgot to mention Osprey books, now stacked high in Waterstones and borders. We like the pretty pictures *and* we like reading about the merits of horse archery in Iran. What clinches the deal, however, is 4 or 5 Angus McBride colour illustrations. And these books aren't cheap either and very thin.

Regardless of whether TSR had good or bad art when it started, it was colourful and strong. Magic the Gathering started off with good art from the beginning and so did Warhammer and Whitewolf.

Sorry they got their image right and pulled people in off the street.

Artwork is massively important to the sales of fantasy products. Its no mistake that D&D, warhammer, magic the gathering and whitewolf invest heavily in fancy graphics and they are also the market leaders. People buy such products just for the pretty pictures. Myself I wasted £10.99 on a pathfinder book (which is apparently a mag by the way) simply because it had the most gorgeous cover illustration and design i'd ever seen. The writing was appalling. It's not just me, either.

Trust me illustrations are integral for a great many people to get in the mood for this stuff.

As for your specific question, I was looking at my favourite books I'll never buy in Forbidden Planet and they have on average a colour illustration every three to five pages. I'd go with sprinkling them in but if you don't have that level of illustrations I'd go for one on each chapter.

Why not compromise and use characteristics with opposed resolution. Much more elegant. Resistance tables are oh so last century

*I will shout at my players "For christ's sake it was the butler" before throwing carefully constructed scenario with very easy clues out the window.

*I fudge the die rolls but make sure I don't get caught

*I do kill my players but always have an npc ready to be taken over and I allow pcs to be rolled up to the level of everyone else

*I rule with an iron fist but i am prepared to listen to appeals and say "sorry I made a mistake". I am definitely in charge though.

*I ignore cheating if the player is having a hard time but don't if they are taking the piss

*I believe in physics, natural selection and socio-economic factors even in Glorantha.

*The world goes on around the PCs as if it is real so, no, they can't see the King and yes if you jump off that you will die. The world doesn't exist as a solipsist dream and I do roll dice for npc vs npc action but in a fudgy way.

*They can see the king if they roleplay properly and in character.

*I'll try and find a way for the PC to use his "Gold to hay" spell. They hardly ever notice its forced.

*I flow from free-wheeling-no-strike-ranks-some-dice-rolling to full on tactical-hit locations-strike ranks mode.

*Yes you can use oratory to stop the troll battering you.

*Language skills are boring

E.g. A spell can be manipulated for magnitude, duration and range but to a maximum extent equal to the caster's spell skill. So, a caster with spell skill of 75% could cast it mag 7 or at mag 2, range 3 and duration 2 or what ever combination adds up to 7.

Oooh very nice

I like the use of the Trebuchet font so I'm stealing that idea. cheers

....so I don't have an axe to grind against Mongoose. I think they are doing a great job.

Some writers on the MRQ line are very good others are very poor. Some of it is beautiful, some of it is a dog's breakfast. I've never seen anything like this. As long as they keep putting out good stuff I won't get too upset at the utter mess they made of the core rules (and yes I do like some of the changes like dropping the resistnace table - you BRP types are living in the past)

I just read the Kustria setting from Glorantha the Second Age a year or more after I bought it. I'm sorry I'm just into Orlanthi against whatever empire it is this decade and jumped passed it when I saw the word Ralios. It's actually very good as you would expect from Robin Laws.

But it needs effort on the part of the gm to flesh it out. We need proper maps including streets and close up maps showing floor plans. I want to know that there is a pile of wood in the corner, that there is a back entrance and that one of the guards goes to see his girlfriend when everyone else is asleep. We need playable material, ie everything that Griffin Island, Masks of Nyarlothetep and the Enemy Within was.

I used Griffin Island when we weren't in Balazar. I reused Gondo Holst's caravan, the Redeye temple - well I reused just about all of it. And yes I do write my own plots but when my players start free roaming I reach for GI.

I think Clanking City is guilty of this "just a setting" philosophy, and though interesting, is completely useless to me.

I doubt there are very many people on this forum who won't agree with me on the quality of GI, Masks and the Enemy Within. They each have the same formula (shared also by Grand Theft Auto another majestic game). That formula needs to be followed by Mongoose also.

IMHO

The trouble with Shield Walls is that they can be broken by a single determined opponent in which case they tend to collapse as the people whose sword arm is nearest the attacker cannot easily parry and the person whose shield arm is nearest the attacker cannot attack easily.....snip

I've seen close order tactics used by the police (ie not the rubber sword contigent). Where holes opened up by determined battering - mounted police and coppers with smaller shields in the rear plugged the gap. The flanks were protected by dog handlers.

I've always wondered whether the benefits of coherence and support really compared with the loss of frontage (ie length of the line). I think the shear solidness of shieldwall tactics, even though they are mostly static, explains why both later roman and barbarian armies used it.

All IMHO

My favourite: the Demon Cat in the Chinese section.

oh I thought it was something naughty, sexy or cool.

__________________

116/420 (gave away one!)

What are these.? What out of 420?

Agreed...........

Sorry English law, I'm embarassed by that but I stand by the rest. I'm talking reasonable discussion similar to what takes place in academic journals (and journalism generally) that acknowledges trademarks.

I'll say no more because I don't want to drag down RosenMcStern who may not be bothered by this into my quarrels but I will cite a judgement concerning the court battle over the DaVinci Code: High Court Judgment

You can google it to see what the press think.

No I'm sorry you're not correct. You cannot copyright words, names or ideas - even made up words, names or ideas. You think newspapers, magazines, encyclopedias, dictionaries and other forms of research are required to seek out permission before discussing the IP (SIC) of other people?

He says he wants to post it all on a wiki ie, an online encyclopedia. He is entitled regardless of whatever other people think.

Courtesy it might be. Necessary it is not.

He should of course mention who owns any registered trademarks and not breach copyright (ie, copying stuff out of other people's books).

You may think I am flaming you but I am still entitled to express my dismay at the bad treatment of creative, hard working, bright people who just want to chat and record their ideas.

If you don't believe me consult a solicitor because I have.

Immediately someone comes on and starts waving the threat of cease and desist notices. Thanks Loz. Free discussion on this subject on the internet is just that - free. It only becomes an issue when money starts changing hands or it can be proven that Greg's business is affected. Free intellectual discussion is certainly protected by British law at least and long may it remain so.

Greg or Mongoose cannot own or suppress ideas, sorry.

I don't really think that Chaos Features = 'Feats'. Growing Wings :eek: is a bit different from learning to better disarm a foe.

What I meant was that they are a skills mechanic that is not percentiles based. You also have others like the Lhankor Mhy Head Smashing Ritual and demon abilities in Stormbringer.

Gifts and Geases works if you have the rules for them, which I don't believe I do. What book are they in?

Cults of Prax off the top of my head.

Ok, before I go and reinvent the wheel, has anyone converted Legendary Abilities from MRQ to BRP/RQ2-3?

I know a lot of people don't like them, and I don't like all of them, but some I do and I was thinking of trying to bring their mechanics inline with BRP for my own game. But, if someone's already done that, I'd love to see what they came up with.

Cheers!

RQ has always had feats they were just called Chaos Features or Gifts and Geases

Chronicle of the Black Sword by Hawkwind - Prog rock album about Elric

Damnit...

I've been always thinking of picking up a copy of Dark Continent, but at the same time, the new Iain M. Banks novel is calling to me.

Drones. Knife missiles. Gung-ho General Contact Units. You can look cool reading it on the bus which you can only dream of one day doing with CoC supplements.

line 347: mozilla adds a line feed at the end of h1 tags. You can replace it with this:

<span style="font-size: 48pt; font-weight: bold; font-family: times; color:rgb(0,0,102);">  Basic Roleplaying Forum</span></td></tr>

line 352: remove <p> tag at beginning of line

line 355: remove </p> tag at end of line

Solves problem for firefox, looks ok with explorer.

I'm using firefox and its broken. I'll have a look at the html and see if I can find the problem.