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dracopticon

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Posts posted by dracopticon

  1. Interesting that you, Stan Shinn, like first editions of games - because I do to!
    For me, this is true with Call of Cthulhu 1st ed: a more fleshed-out education system, Stormbringer 1st-3rd ed: a fantastic chaotic character generation system and ritual magic system that fits the Young Kingdoms like a glove, and also King Arthur Pendragon 1st ed: where you could play a very mixed group of knights, even from Wotanic backgrounds, not to mention the awesome culture custom skills which gave you interesting situations and insights into other values and beliefs.

    I think the main reason why first editions often are better, is because the game authors making it for the first time is so passionate about it! And that's a passion is hard to summon for later editions, at least with the same energy for the whole project. But, heck, I don't really know. It's just my two cents.

  2. On 6/18/2021 at 11:24 AM, Darius West said:

    Chaosium's Dunwich Campaign pack is excellent imo. It is very much the sandbox, which is how I like to run my games too.  I encourage my players to develop their characters with a sense of agency, and avoid railroading altogether.  By comparison, I think Masks of Nyarlathotep is a lot more railroady, and Horror on the Orient Express actually benefits from railroading (for obvious reasons).

    I enjoyed your reference to phrenology in the Dunwich area.  Maybe it's inbreeding?  Maybe it's Maybeline. 😆

     

    Thanks for your reply Darius West! I am sorry for my late reply, I don't get any info of replies to my Hotmail inbox, so I gotta change some notifications here. Yes, I also think that Masks of Nyarlathotep is very much a straight line and IMO particularly Horror on the Orient Express is like that in the most tedious way. Then again, railroading can be good if it's done well without too obvious "tracks".

    And yes! 🙂 I thought Phrenology would be an excellent wink to how various racial thinking actually were OK in those days, which is horror in itself. So the characters go around measuring skulls and performing physicals on the rednecks, who totally fall for the "scientific importance feel" of visiting "big city folk" and are much obliged for cost free examinations.

    • Like 1
  3. On 6/15/2021 at 12:08 PM, Darius West said:

    There ae plenty of options for the remains of Noah Whately.  He might simply spontaneously come alive again, as such is the reputation of wizards that they seldom ever truly die, and (proverbially) uneasy is the town wherein a wizard is buried.  Perhaps Wilbur keeps Noah's living head in a cookie jar, like in some B movie, to ask it questions now and again?  This means that Noah is still an actor in the story, but the players don't feel as if they have to fight him all over again, just shriek and find a way to dispose of this newly discovered horror.

    Not also, that when Wilbur is killed at the Miskatonic Library by Napoleon the watchdog, that he has all sorts of bizarre limbs and organs inside him.  This is somewhat reminiscent of John Carpenter's "The Thing".  There is also the "what if" scenario where the dead Wilbur has these limbs burst forth in a live and functional monstrosity.  This won't necessarily work for Noah and Lavinia of course.

    The Dunwich Horror is perhaps the most classic CoC scenario that Lovecraft ever wrote imo.  It's a good choice to run.

    Thank you Darius West for that excellent answer to my question! And sorry for my late reply back. Yes, I'm beginning to understand that "The Wizard" is not necessarily dead when he's taken down by gunfire or otherwise. That fact is horrendous in itself and once it dawns on the characters that he is back and this time perhaps more (pissed and powerful) - whether in a jar or not - they may just make a run for it.

    As a side note: I think I played the caves wandering part of the story a little bit too easy on them. And that's in spite of them seeing an NPC geting transformed into a translucent jelly and then he getting skewered on the grotto walls, splitting into several twitching parts before them stamping it out, SEVERE SAN ROLLS!. It was a collegue from the MU university that they had rescued from the pyramid. They themselves didn't even get near to that fate. I ruled that the 1920s gas masks held tight, possibly a bad revision of history, but I wanted to keep them alive. There's so much to experience in the Dunwich area, so much for them to do. I have run several side-stories connected to Dunwich, but ...

    The overall assignment for them is to conduct a three-year health survey of the Dunwich Valley for the MU, including a Phrenology skull-measuring analysis to see if the inhabitants are "lesser human beings" or the greater part of them have been mentally compromised somehow, as there are so much sickness and poverty happening there.

    I plan to run other scenarios interceeding with this one, at least try on the Masks campaign, as I thought the Peru part was quite good, even if it means backtracking timewise. But this sandbox first!

  4. Yep, I'll probably use the old "POWx1"-rule for their sixth sense to kick in and give a bitter taste in their mouths. I mean a Child of Yog-Sothoth, no matter how old or large, should somehow radiate evil that can be felt through wooden or even stone walls. Maybe they can have a kind of "waking dream-nightmare" insights. Either way I'll make sure they have enough chance to feel the oozing presence, even if they can't see it (at first).

    It will be a memorable few minutes. I have also checked beforehand if any of the players had read the novel "The Dunwich Horror", but no one had.

    • Like 2
  5. On 6/12/2021 at 3:27 PM, EricW said:

    Have they burned the body? Or is it sitting there, waiting for some ghastly ritual to reanimate it? If Lavinia is still alive Wilbur can still pass for human, so he is not in a desperate hurry yet, and Noah has a copy of the Necronomicon.
     

    Wilbur might decide it’s worth the trouble to resurrect Noah, if he hasn’t learned what he needs to control his brother. A resurrected Noah would be a nightmare, because some rituals like essential saltes would cure his dementia and restore his full faculties.

    Dont underestimate Noah, a back woods self educated wizard who almost singlehandedly engineered the end of the world.

    First of all, thanks for your reply EricW! I thought I would never get any answers to my questions. So, I am really thankful for your words.

    Nope, they have not burnt the body. And yes, it's on the floor right in front of them, as they're all right now "alone" in the house (but not for long). The Child of Yog-Sothoth is of course on the second floor, but I have a hard time determining what actual size and maturity it is in now (in 1924, four years before the actual "Horror" story). That room is closed and locked, but they can of course pick the lock or perhaps find keys (?). Nice idea that the other family members can reanimate Noah. 🙂 I'll keep that in mind.

    The Necronomicon will come in handy. And the salts! yes, that is a grisly idea. 🙂 Thanks. This gives me incentive to build the next encounter. And if the PCs try to enter the room with the Child and it is anywhere near the horrendous creature it becomes in 1928, surely at least one of the snoopy investigators will be picked up by "something invisible" and in a true terrorizing fashion drained and eaten...

    • Like 1
  6. Hello all!

    OBS! SPOILERS BELOW FOR THE "RETURN TO DUNWICH" CAMPAIGN! Do not read further if you are a player in the setting.

    I had been running the "Return to Dunwich" campaign for quite some time before Covid-19 came. BUT: I run the campaign BEFORE the happenings of the story "The Dunwich Horror". Now I am ever so slowly beginning to take it up again. But there's not really time yet. Maybe in a few weeks - or months. This has happened last we played:

    The year is 1924, not 1928 and the date is 30/7.  The characters have trekked through the caves of Dunwich and managed to follow them (with gasmasks on) through all the way to the Whateley family house and came out inside it - surprising Noah Whateley who, after a heated exchange of words, tried to lay a nasty spell on them but was gunned down. Fortunately for the characters no one else was there (downstairs), and they have yet to examine the other parts of the house. So, neither Wilbur or Lavinia is there just now. They will be returning, and if the characters explore further, it can be a shortened campaign for at least one of them. To be totally honest, when the pandemic started I was in a pickle as a Keeper. As they had killed Noah, and the others were absent, apart from one very notable exception, the return of Wilbur+Lavinia was going to be equally bloody or not. I couldn't really decide how to proceed further.

    So my question is; now that I will begin the story again, what do you think should happen next? All input is welcomed. Thanks! //Erik B.

     

    • Like 1
  7. 16 hours ago, smiorgan said:

    The Revolution d100 rules:

    https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/199093/Revolution-D100?src=hottest_filtered

    The basic rules can be found in this free quickstart scenario (very Moorcockian in flavor):

    https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/287848/Revolution-D100-Quickstart-The-Conspiracy-Theory?src=newest

    The conflict rules are on page 7 of the basic rules. My port to Stormbringer was very basic and all you need to replicate it is on that page. In using the table substitute the term "advantage" in the table with "critical" if you are using Stormbringer's levels of success.

    Have fun!

    Smiorgan

    Thank you! Sorry for the late reply!

    Kindest regards,

    Erik.

    • Like 1
  8. This is so much fun to read Smiorgan! And that extra rules that you mentioned earlier: "... Revolution d100 conflict rules (outdebating the Vilmirian Inquisition was a high point of the conflict!)" sounded really fun! Where can I get hold of those? Please advise.

    I generally only GM the 1st/2nd version of Stormbringer, the reason being that I think the general chaotic feel of the character generation and especially the ritual magic with everything being creatures instead of spells, right in tune with the overall Young Kingdoms/Chaotic plane atmosphere.

    House ruling and bridgeing from other BRP games; RQ, Pendragon, etc. is testament to BRP being just a wonderful system - still after all these years.

  9. On 7/29/2020 at 11:03 PM, threedeesix said:

    No worries. There are currently no plans for new methods of Character creation. 

    Rod

    Just to make sure I understood you Rod, and excuse me for absolutely necroing your reply here but again, concerning my MUCH earlier question on whether you were going to include other characteristic rolling variations (as I said, like Unearthed Arcana's "Method V" ability rolling method) - you're not going to include it? It IS rather easy to just copy and paste the already existing method in UA, "just" substituting Wisdom for Power and Comliness for Size. But It would've been nice to see it there, so had to ask again!

  10. Sorry for putting this question forward so late in this thread - and it is totally possible I anger someone with me asking it here (apologies for that) - but will you have something like Unearthed Arcana's "Method V" ability (characteristic) rolling method inluded in the Unearthed Companion?

  11. Many great tips and tricks here! I apologize for not replying earlier. I get no notifications on my email on replies here, got to change that!

    Anyway, right now I am tinkering with the idea of maybe including "Schadenfreude" among the traits. Mostly because I hate it so much. It's a truly evil thing IMO.

    • Like 1
  12. 10 minutes ago, Ian Absentia said:

    The Manicheanism angle is really just a side thought.  It was one of the dualistic, gnostic religions that emerged at the same time of -- and had a mutual influence with -- early Christianity.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manichaeism

    In essence, there's a good and spiritual world ruled by a good deity, and a bad and material world ruled by an evil deity.  We're effectively stuck in the middle, and could go one way or the other.  In game, this could provide two paths of "virtue," the irony being that they might both lead to heaven.  The '90s game Kult (Swedish, in fact!) played with this concept.

    !i!

    Thanks! Yes I recognized quite a few influences from the Manichean ideas being inherent in Kult. :)

  13. 46 minutes ago, Ian Absentia said:

    Have a look here at what I was playing with for a Buddhist and Shinto take on the KAP virtues for a samurai game set against the Genpei Wars:

    http://genpei.pbworks.com/w/page/13885658/Character-Creation

    One could, conceivably, even use something like the D&D 9-cell alignment matrix and choose the paragon virtues and bonus rewards for each of the alignments.  But keeping it simpler than that, to prevent dilution of the benefit of actual virtues, think about what's generally important to the society in which you're playing and keep the virtues focused on that goal.

    Another neat idea, taking a sort of Manichean approach, would be to create Spiritual/Material or Good/Evil virtue paths that ultimately lead to the same virtue bonus.

    !i!

    Thank you so much! This is clearly illuminating throught the lenses of Japanes feudality. Interesting. I also like the basic equipment packages for different classes.

    AD&D alignments works well, atleast for the worlds of Greyhawk and such. Historically (as I am to be sixty in a little over four years) I always felt the matrix to be too stiff for my game, but I am not really updated with later versions of D&D/AD&D. What I am looking for is more in line with how the Warhammer Fantasy literature describes in what ways the forces of the Immaterium affects the human vices. Things like Lust, Ambition, Envy and such, but at the same time not too much like the Seven Deadly Sins. 

    What is Manichean? You have to excuse me, I am Swedish, so my English is only so good. :) Many thanks for this input! //Erik

  14. Hello!

    I have been tinkering with my own BRP-based RPG-system and world for eons it seems. The main story is about to be transformed into a scenario, but the main question now, is:

    If I want to use personality traits for characters in my game (à la King Arthur Pendragon and Paladin: Warriors of Charlemagne) but NOT necessarily emphasize only chevaleresque traits and/or traits that is in line with purely christian virtues, so what kind of OTHER virtues should/could I use? Please help!

    //Erik.

  15. My god, Julian Lord, so much whining on some details about whether the Vingan warrior can or cannot carry that much weight on a single spear. So what!? What does it matter? Do you play the RQ game the same way you nitpick on that nicely made painting? In that case, you sir, are known as a rules lawyer and a royal pain in the a**. I would really think twice before having you in any playing group, in that case.

    Lighten up! The painting gives so  much other marvelous feelings one can celebrate. And why not focus on those parts instead? I can think of at least a dozen fine things the picture conveys important and beautiful points to the viewer. And the most important part for me, is that this is a painting portraying a real woman fighter - totally free of the irritating tradition of boob plate!

    //Erik.

    • Like 7
    • Thanks 1
  16. Why not kill off the whole Wyter idea? For me, Runequest and Glorantha is NEVER about min-maxing and finding the cracks in the rules, it's about experiencing a world with islands such as QAPHQA and exploring them and having fun with your friends. Power gaming is so far from what RQ and Glorantha should be.

    • Confused 1
  17. On 12/27/2018 at 6:59 PM, Ian Cooper said:

    Thank you.

     

    And we are working on that. I even had a conversation with @Jeff about some material for the Sky Ship before that in the pub before Dragonmeet. I have photos of the notes we made in his book 🙂

    Excuse me for necroing this thread, but I would certainly be interested in any notes made on this (or pics of them). I am just now buying both hardbacks, and am planning to run it with RQG. So any conversion/planning notes or anything like it hemping in this would really be appreciated! 

  18. 14 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

    I notice that your Assistant Priest is significantly under-skilled compared to most (all?) other occupations by about 70%. In the RQG book, every occupation has a couple of skills around the 30% mark, which are their main money earners.

    Yes! You are totally right. I thought about the fact that the occupations probably all have about the same total points summary when taking in all the skills. So I was about to change it but had not gotten to it. I will compare the total worth of points from other occupations and heighten the moneymaking skills also.

  19. 1 hour ago, PhilHibbs said:

    The adventurer creation process will never result in a character who is actually qualified to become priest. That has to be done through play. Some people have managed to find ways to create adventurers who are already qualified for Rune Lord, but I think Priest is impossible.

    And if that makes you think "well how do NPCs become priests", the Adventurer creation system is just that. It's for creating "Adventurers", not all Gloranthans.

    Well put my dear sir! Yes, I concur, the Adventurer creation system is meant to be just that in my book too. OK, this may change my stance on certain parts of this additional occupation. But I am not totally beyond including it though.

    • Like 1
  20. 17 minutes ago, PhilHibbs said:

    That's what the Priest occupation is. It's someone who is training for the priesthood, like Yanioth. She is created using the Priest occupation, but she isn't qualified yet.

    But then the qualification is handled during character generation, and not during play? Or am I mistaken?

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