Charles Green

Runequest won out in the poll, so the WIR thread had begun. Here's the link, for those interested: WIR: Runequest - Roleplaying in Glorantha

Here's the link to the thread in question: My Next WIR

Thanks for the head's up. I'll make sure to add my voice in.

I am purging my books in preparation for a move, and found an old copy of Griffin Island amongst the clutter. The box is beaten all to Hell, but the contents are intact complete. I doubt I'll ever get a chance to run it, and thought it should go to someone who might. Mainly looking to sell, but might be interested in trade for the right items. Presently looking for 6mm to 15mm miniatures, either fantasy or sci-fi. Games Workshop Epic models would be ideal. Thanks for looking! Charles

I agree. I've had a problem with the sexual dimorphism rules, and thought they had been removed at my suggestion. The idea that men are generally stronger than women isn't actually backed up by science, and is one of those cultural things that everyone assumes is true but isn't. While it is true that individual men can be stronger than individual women, that works both ways; individual women are stronger than individual men. And inclusion rules that say otherwise is a big, flashing neon sign that says "this game isn't for women".

There are no rails in the Astral Sea. Homeward is designed first and foremost to be about player agency; the stories that develop during play are those relating to the PCs and their desire to find Home. The adventures I have are about placing the group in certain situations, or at certain places, rather than being enmeshed in a plot that the GM sets up beforehand. Which is not to say that all adventures are going to be one-shots. Some are short min-campaigns, about 2 to 3 session each. But even these are set up to be slotted in where applicable. One adventure is "you're marooned on a desolate dimension" while another is "this is the time the job goes south and everyone nearly dies". The publication date is yet to be determined. Much depends on how the crowdfunding campaign for Revolution d100 goes. Homeward is a stretch goal, after all. That said, a great deal of the text for Homeward already exists, and once I can turn active attention to it, the work should come pretty swiftly. I believe the anticipated publication date is Spring 2016, but as with all things, this is likely to change.

1. For simplicity's sake, tech level for each world is a case-by-case basis. Most of the worlds are some form of fantasy, but high tech worlds do exist, and there are methods for accessing the Astral Seas via technological means. Visually, I'm describing Astral ships as sailing vessels, but this is mostly colour, and the whole thing could be done Star Trek style with fancy techno-magick vessels. The specifics of the ship the PCs depend on the group; it comes with some stock features, and each it can get an additional feature for each PC in the group. So, it starts off as a basic ship-of-the-line, with dimensional travel abilities, and it might gain a stock of weapons, the ability to fly, and demonic servants instead of other human crew. Another group might bind spirits into the sails for greater speed, and make the hull sturdier. 2. Rogue Mistress is one of my favourite books from the Stormbringer line. It's a huge influence on Homeward, so the similarities are certainly there. But it isn't the only influence. I've been reading a lot about the nature of people in exile, and kept having this sense that, in many roleplaying campaigns, PCs are rootless wanderers, cut off from their homes, families, and histories. There are countless stories that could come out of such a milieu, and Homeward's Cosmos, with its universes floating like eggs in a vast sea, is a place where that rootlessness could be explored and mined for dramatic tension. Rogue Mistress was about telling one specific story. With Homeward, I wanted to set up a variety of stories. 3. There will be both setting material and rules material, though much of the setting is designed during play. At the start of the game, most the only things that exist for certain are the Astral Seas, the ship upon which the PCs sail, and the planes from which they come. There are rules in place to create just enough detail about a new dimension so that PCs have a place to go for their first adventures. Some planes do get more attention. Earth, for example, has access to the Seas, so PCs can be drawn from any point in Earth's history. One of the sample PCs is a teenager from modern Earth, lost amongst the Seas, trying to find his or her way home. Most of the rules material isn't going to be altering how the Revolution d100 rules work. I prefer instead to focus on using the system to convey a specific sort of game, so most of my rules systems are meant to hit themes, metaphors and images. 4. The Philosophical Engine is certainly going to make an appearance. Paolo and I are working out how and when this is going to happen. The initial impetus for Homeward was to create a setting where The Philosophical Engine would form the core of the player experience. What a PC believes, and how they act to make those beliefs a reality, is really what this project is about.

Since I missed the Q&A (curse my poor grasp of international time zones), I thought I'd chime in and answer any questions about Homeward: Weird Adventures on the Astral Seas, my setting book for Revolution d100. In Homeward, everyone is from somewhere else. The players are all crew on a dimension-traveling ship. None were born on it, and some may die on it. You might be a sorcerer-king in exile, a wandering philosopher seeking Enlightmentment, an angel of the Higher Worlds fallen to crude matter, or something even stranger. Powerful though you may be, you are, at heart, in exile; estranged from a life of peace and fulfilment. You've seen many ports of call in the Astral Seas, but none speaks to your soul as the thought of Home, wherever or whatever that may be. And yet, while Home is too easily left, it is not so easily returned to. All who travel the Astral Seas bears a Weird, a destiny that must come to pass before Home can be found. A person's Weird is unique to them, as individual as the soul. One's Weird is two-pronged: pursuing it lends emphasis to your efforts and progress towards Home, but if pushed too far, too fast, Weird can spell one's Doom. The Astral Seas are like water, sailed upon by the stout of heart, and those with no choice. And like water, the Seas have eddies and currents, bringing things from other worlds into contact, often in ways disastrous for all involved. Whole worlds exist as islands in the Seas, each with its own peculiar gods. So you and your comrades sail, from port to port, job to job, and day to day, seeking that final port, knowing that you may not reach it. No mortals are native to the Seas, but they host life nonetheless. Things stir in the Underseas; Things terrible in conception, loathsome in aspect. None sail the Astral Seas for long before stories of The Things reach their ears. Most are surely nothing more than old-salt stories. But what of the rest? I'm also having this discussion on just about anywhere else on the Internet where they'll let me yammer.

I could have sworn that 19:00 GMT was 7 PM my time. So sorry to have missed out on this!

I concur. An English-language edition stretch goal would absolutely get me to pledge.

I'm intrigued. I've always heard good things about this, but don't speak Swedish. And it is surprising to see an old Stormbringer cover in a different context.

Thanks!

Do you have a link for the RPG.net post? I want to follow it, but can't find it.

I had an error message when trying to pay via Paypal ("invalid transaction"), but got a payment with a credit card to go fine. There seemed to be an issue about needing to verify my shipping address first, but that might have been unrelated.

Awesome! I'm heading over to pledge as I type.

I have a plan in place already. Thanks for the recommendation though. I've been giving GORE a lot of thought lately.

You obviously don't know my spouse.

While I appreciate this sentiment, I have an agreement with my spouse that writing work I do is not disseminated for free.

The short answer is that Chaosium sat on it for three years. Having a project done, but not published, for that amount of time is rough on the nerves. I grew tired of waiting on Chaosium to work its issues out, and when it became clear that MW was no longer a priority, I withdrew the submission. However, I really, really want the project to get into people's hands. I'm really keen an seeing what people do with it. So, to that end, I've been looking for another means of getting The Philosophical Engine out into the world.

The Philosophical Engine & Expanded Allegiance, my contribution to the Magic World Chronicler's Companion, won't be appearing in that book, if it ever does see publication.

Oh, man. It looks thick too. I really want to see that material!

This is a very interesting development, and one I'll be keeping a keen eye on.

Baseline BRP would make a good foundation for a game that works off similar principles to the *World Games. How I'd approach things is that have PCs be mostly just characteristics rolls on the d100 scale, with test results being broken down into which Moves would apply should the PC fail. Damage rolls pretty much would work like they do in both DW and BRP: Roll damage, subtract armour, take off hit points. All you'd really need to do is work ou playbook-style professions for PCs, to determine what moves/powers they have. You could probably use BRP monster stats as-is, only using what you need. BRP's flexibility with regard to tinkering is one of the game's greatest assets.

With Dragon Lines, I wanted to create something that used the existing rules more or less as-is, but repackaged in a way that allows for greater flexibility than in normal in BRP. It is very much a "draw from existing material" project, and as such fits in with a lot of how BRP and MW have developed. The Philosophical Engine & Expanded Allegiance is sort of the opposite of this approach. While it is always nice to get classic material back into play, I was noting that there wasn't a lot of new mechanical stuff coming out. At the time, my personal Hermetic practice was being infused by an influx of Jewish works on Kabbalah, and it occurred to me that, with suitable tweaking, some elements of the Tree of Life could be used as the basis for a DIY religion (which is how the Hermetic stuff works anyway). The article in the Chronicler's Companion is an expression of this idea in a game-rules format.

I'm not certain, but it might be saying something like "instead of rolling the d8, assume the result is 4." So, a kind of averaging if you don't want to roll? You might take a Str of 12 instead of rolling 3d8. Maybe?