Pete Nash

Snap. Number 2 especially...

Three things made me eventually dislike RQ3 sorcery. Individual Spell skills, Free INT and Duration. Starting out with beginning level sorcerers meant that your spell skills were so low they were useless when cast under pressure. Such unreliable casting chances made a sorcerer a sitting duck in combat, and offensive spells were useless unless combined with the ritual skill and cast at range. As skills they took forever to advance, and I was green with envy reading NPC sorcerers in RQ scenarios, somehow managing to learn dozens of spells and the manipulation skills to competent levels when my Adept PC came nowhere close after three years of progression (gaming every week). Free INT buggered sorcerers since they were penalised for keeping spells in memory. Thus the only effective casters were ones with access to spell matrices or the ability to create them. IMO Duration was perhaps the worst aspect. Although at first it seemed fun to have spells that lasted a while, the whole system began to break down at higher levels, enabling a lone sorcerer to cast hundreds of magic points worth of spells, before needing to replace/recast them again. This not only broke the magical ecology of Glorantha for me, but it also led to massive power escalation as sorcerers began casting Damage Boosting and Enhanced Characteristics on everyone in the party. In addition spell costs were expensive. If you lacked a sympathetic GM who lobbed a few MP storage crystals your way, you were buggered as a spellcaster. You just need to look at the Mage in Griffin Island to see the extremes scenario writers came up with to make sorcerers flexible. Of course when I started out I thought the Sorcery system was wonderful. Only after playing with it a while, and then GMing it at high levels did it begin to rub me the wrong way.

The rules grant bonuses to performing acts related to passions the players themselves choose. How frequently you incorporate the source of thier passions into a game is of course up to the GM.

My only suggestion is to convert over to MRQ2 and pick up the new version of Elric of Melnibone. Loz and I designed the magic system to be as faithful to the saga as possible (not everyman and his dog having a bound demon), and Loz has meshed a passion system into this version which explicitally fulfils your PC motivation requirements.

Well done! I'm looking forwards to seeing it.

Heck I missed it too! I was so caught up writing, I completely missed the fact that we'd won something! Oh well, I hope somebody said something nice at the awards ceremony for us. I'd just like to thank everyone who voted for Rome, but I'd especially like to thank the judge who nominated it in the first place. Thank You! I can now retire gracefully, knowing I have done my bit for BRP and d% gaming... Err, why is somebody sticking a gladius into my back and forcing me back to my keyboard... um, help?

Sacred geese perhaps?

Just an observation, but Rome doesn't appear on DriveThru's '2010 ENnie Nominees' list - which is a bit of an oversight. At least, not under the "Explore the nominees here on DriveThruRPG.com" link anyway. I have no idea about the validity of the ENnies or its reach (I knew nothing about them before I was told about the nominations), but I suppose this is a chance for all of us to raise the profile of BRP in the eyes of the roleplaying community. So send a vote if you love the old workhorse!

I sent a recommendation for what they should cover and placement in the book, but I have no idea what the maps will turn out like.

Wow, I get interrupted half way through writing a reply, and by the time I post it the thread has doubled in length!

Thanks for the vote of confidence! I have to say that, due to the limited page count, the amount of space given to in-depth history is somewhat curtailed. There's more than in the RQ3 version however with a comprehensive time-line, but it is still somewhat superficial. To make up for it I go into a little more depth with society and culture. I've also provided a number of magic systems to reflect Viking traditions, although for the sake of playability I was forced to create some artificial classifications, to avoid the woeful contradictions which plague the subject. There's a chapter explaining the oddities of Viking religion, another giving a wide range of Viking creatures with some slightly different interpretations of what they are and how to use them. In addition are the mandatory chapters for MRQ2 style character generation and Viking equipment, with a wider range of Viking ships included - which I think use RQ3 compatible ship characteristics. I also have a chapter about Viking campaign design, with fifty something plot seeds. The book is not exclusively aimed at the pure historical game, but tailored to support a saga level or mythic level of campaign too. Its written for MRQ2 of course, but save for some of the Dwarf-made wondrous items, it should be an easy conversion. There are of course quotes from the sagas and eddas too. Unfortunately for you guys I am a full time writer for Mongoose now, with a punishing work schedule. There aren't very many professional (salaried) RPG writing jobs in the world so you have to grab them when they're available! So no BRP books from me for the foreseeable future.

Sorry Rust, the book only covers the traditional Viking period up to 1066. There simply wasn't enough space to pack as much as I wanted into it.

You use a harpoon to kill walruses, just as Paolo said. However, it isn't a case of go up, stab it a few times for a clean kill then drag it off for dinner. Its more like ancient whale hunting, where you lodge a couple of harpoons into its body and then hang onto the rope for several hours whilst the walrus tries to swim off and slowly exhausts itself. Once its completely spent, then you go in close with a large knife or axe and give it a rather involved coup de grace. Its a long, bitter and brutal struggle. Or you do what the Vikings sometimes did, close off a bay to prevent the walruses or whales from swimming away, then shoot them full of poisoned arrows and thrown spears. Once they've eventually given up the struggle, you go up and finish off the quiescent beast...

Thanks Rust! Of course I'm only reponsible for the writing, it was the rest of the team (Dario, Paolo and co.) who did such a fantastic job of layout and locating/providing better art. Although it maybe a little difficult to read on screen, I personally think it was their production values which made this a top-notch supplement. As a physical book, the clarity of layout is excellent.

I'd suggest keeping combat to a minimum, perhaps using it as the climatic conclusion to some scenarios - a battle or assassination attempt for example. BRP can be lethal and healing wounds takes time. Using long distance travel or campaigning seasons can help pace the adventures so that PCs have time to recover. If you know your history, the 2nd Punic War can be a fantastic basis for lots of internecine feuding amongst the senate members, and political intrigue between Rome and its wavering client city-states. So I'd suggest focussing on the ambitions, stupidity and treachery of the leading figure of the time - lots of roleplaying and political manoeuvring, with the PCs starting as loyal clients before being tempted (or driven) to seizing power for themselves. Throw in the occasional battle to keep the combat junkies happy and some sea voyages which narrowly survive bad storms, pirates or Punic fleets. Realistically the greatest danger in the campaign shouldn't be Carthage, but the military incompetance or self-seeking aspirations of their own side... assuming the party are Romans of course!

Unfortunately, working for Mongoose has sucked up all my time. So no chance of a Rome campaign from me in the near future. It doesn't stop anyone else having a go though!

Indeed. Just look at our own planet 65 million years ago. It had a very nasty range of deadly predators too.

I was fully expecting them to do that, tree trunks if not rocks. My napkin would have been a bit wrong. As you surmised, the na'vi were obviously acting within their cultural traditions/limitations. Definately not PCs...

Don't take my statements as an endorsement either, since I'm one of the authors. I'd suggest also having a look at the Mongoose forums for further info, since they're not shy over there of giving a justifiably savage critique. Thus far however, MRQII has been well received by the community as a whole. Loz and I have even had personal emails expressing thanks and congratulations, which for me (save for Rome) is a first. The system went through five different playtest groups, and although there were a few initial balks with some of the innovations, once everyone sunk their teeth into it and used the rules as written, most appreciated the refinements. I know of a few other games that are using MRQII and so far the feeling has been very positive; surprisingly so in fact.

In terms of verisimilitude I don't even see Gloranthan grimoires as books. IMG (in my Glorantha) the Abiding Book is a huge scroll mounted on six foot long staffs, and requires at least two people carrying it like a stretcher to move it around. Whereas the sorceries of Pavis cannot be set to parchment or paper, but only exist as colossal friezes carved on the inner crystal walls of his temple.

You could always say that each spell in your campaign comes from a separate Grimoire! It'd certainly fit the S&S genre.

It hasn't been published yet. I am hoping it'll be the next issue.

They are as flexible as you want to make them. By default a weapon style should allow you to use the weapons listed, both in combination or singly (in case one of them is knocked out of your hand or broken). However, if you want to make a style more inclusive say Swashbuckling (sword, dagger, pistol) then you can. I've written an article for Signs & Portents illustrating this, and other, suggestions for RQII combat. Technically they should be combat styles. Where it mentions a particular weapon, the player must assign the bonus to a combat style which includes that weapon. Hope that helps.

Arrgh, my exhaustion fogged brain can't take any more puns. I'm off to bed!

Well my copy has a Luck Rune (upsidown V with a crossbar over the top). Perhaps I was just lucky...