Jarulf

I haven't read any of them in ages, and not that many either but I seem to remember I liked some of the Darkover stories.

I got the latest incarnation of the rules, and played for a while in a game on rpol.net. It looks really cool but at least as difficult to get into as I suspect Glorantha can be for the uninitiated. And those names... :confused: Oh, and that pulp version sounds like lots of fun.

Wow! That sounds really, uhm. Different? I've never played Nobilis and all I know about it is the name :-)

I'm not sure I ever had any ardour that needed rekindling as I never really got into it. For Harn I'd want religions analogous to real world ones, so I'd have to change Larani, Morgath et co into something not entirely different from Judaism, Christianity and Islam. With several twists of course, carbon copies are rarely fun. Recognizable, but different, but it would mean rewriting quite a bit of history. I did start working on this ages ago, trying to shoehorn the different deities into two or three related faiths with Nolomar (the Sun) as the principal God for all. But the religions isn't the only thing, I don't like the elves and dwarves, the earthmasters, Lothrim and so on. Most of these are easily ignored, but they add up. I think my real problem is that while I love fantasy, I don't like the fantasy elements of Harn much. To me, it's just an odd mix. The magic system is pretty cool though and should be transferable to BRP from what I remember of it. We did play Traveller (the little black books) a bit but never got a proper campaign going. I think we had more fun rolling up characters to see how long they survived during character generation.

Over the years, have you come across any systems or settings (other than BRP/RQ/Elric!/etc or Glorantha!) that were so close to being just right, but had some fatal flaw that prevented you from bowing down in worship? For me, I think Harnworld is a very good candidate. It's a richly detailed setting for a gritty low-fantasy type of gaming I often enjoy. The maps are pretty and informative, the details on society, culture and economics are good and so on. But I absolutely hate the religions. They are silly and dull. They are no different probably from what you'd find in many other games, but I just think they clash with the medieval quasi-real feeling of the rest of the setting. Isn't that island a little bit crowded with all those kingdoms? Elves and dwarves lifted from Middle Earth (literally, I gather). I really want to like Harnworld, but can't.

This might be useful. They have a 25p preview for download. e23: EABA: Stuff! And their site is at Blacksburg Tactical Research Center

It's always fun to hear about what others are doing, or planning to do. I have just started on a setting that I've had vague ideas about for a long time, but for some reason it seems they are starting to come together now. As I don't have a group to play with, I don't have any concrete plans for it, or a deadline but its fun and I may run it as a PbP sometime. It's basically a city setting, on the coast by a river. Inland to the east is a semi-arid region with nomadic "bedouin" tribes and a high mountain range further away. North and south are similar coastal cities, rivals and allies while across the sea (which is a bit like the Baltic, only larger and less narrow at the inlet), is a mercantile empire reminiscent of the Attic League. Across the eastern mountains is Persian style empire with a dualistic religion. The Westerners have a Greco-Roman style religion but with a quickly growing monotheist sect, based on sun worship. I haven't detailed any of that yet, so it's just working descriptions so far. The city (without a name as yet) is built around, on and inside a huge cliff, somewhat Petra-like. The lowest level is outside the base of the cliff, and holds the harbour, fishmarket, poorer areas and so on. The second level, which is only reached through a stepped tunnel in the cliff, holds the mansions of the wealthier families, temples and barracks. most houses on this level are both cut into the rock and a front built outside. Indeed, they have "front" doors at both ends, outside onto the plateau and inside cliff opening onto tunnels and indoor plazas. The cliff itself is honeycombed with tunnels, residences, larger open areas, shops etc and is where the real life of the city takes place. The top level, on top of the cliff holds a garden (pity the slaves who carry the water!) and the palace of the king or ruler. The city was founded by seven tribes in the area long ago, the cliff may have had some religious significance to them, and the political, economic and religious life is still dominated by these seven tribes or clans. They each brought their patron god (modeled on animals, thus a toad god for death and rebirth, a wolf for hunting and war etc. suggestions welcome!) and the high priest of each cult is now a member of a special council. There is a great deal of scheming between the cults and between the council and the king. The different clans also control various trades and crafts, though none has a monopoly. As can be expected from an rpg setting, there is a constant wheeling and dealing going on with each family seeking the upper hand and trying to muscle in on the others' territory. Magic is rare and without having seen the rules yet, I haven't decided on how to go about it. What I don't want is point-and-bang spells, I like magic for this setting to be almost exclusively of a ritual nature, i.e it takes hours or days to perform. I think there will be two basic types, one that mostly gives enhancements or penalties to skills, not too high but lasting for a day or two. Perhaps some mind influencing stuff as well. The second kind is the summoning, control and mastery of spirits, elementals and demons. This is all very dangerous. I'm seriously considering having each summoning spell have a (possible) SAN cost. A friendly spirit ancestor wouldn't be hard on your mental health but a Azrosha demon could rip your soul to bits while it chewed on your legs. I'm also entertaining the idea that demons and spirits can be integrated, giving the sorceror some aspect of their abilities or even increasing stats. The downside is that this really puts a strain on your SAN and that you are very likely to gain some bad stuff to, aka chaos features. The cults may have ways of dealing with this, to some extent and the priests may have simple spirits or benevolent "demons" available for integration. I haven't though of the mechanics for this yet, but it would require very high skills (over 100%) to integrate demons.

Yup. A couple of times.

True enough, I just failed to see the point. /shrug

I placed an add on rpol.net for a game for two PCs I'd like to play. Basically, it's set in a late medieval early renaissance low fantasy world, with competing city states. Think Italy. One of the cities undergo some sort of upheaval, a coup perhaps, that forces the two PCs to flee. The general focus of the game would be seeing how the PCs survive on their own, escaping their enemies and make a new life for themselves. It would be more about character development and relationships than combat, though I'd certainly like some of that as well. The books about Sun Wolf and Starhawk by Barbara Hambly have been in the back of my mind for this game as a general inspiration. It would be a great opportunity to try out the new rules for a GM who has them ;-) The add is here Wanted - GMs on RPoL, thread #5864

If you can't say who your source is, then why post about it at all until, and if, you can?

That sounds like a great idea. I play mostly on-line now and have been in several GURPS games. Many potential players express interest but haven't got the rules but with the GURPS lite rules they can still take part. I suspect their presence sells the real game, though I've no evidence of that.

That's probably true, except this GM doesn't really remember exactly how D&D works (and thus in retrospect probably shouldn't have mentioned it). I played a lot of 1st ed in the 80's, but have only encountered 3.0/3.5 in computer games. He didn't seem to mind. I didn't bother with going through 'proper' character generation. We decided what kind of character he was going to play, and I just gave him suitable skills. Some I didn't think of at first came up during play when he asked to do stuff, so I just said "ok you have 40% in that". I'm a very inexperienced GM but I think I managed to fool him

I ran a little adventure in RQ3 for my nine year old nephew last summer. He was completely new to rpgs and had a very vague idea of what it really was about, but after a few minutes explaining things he got right into it. The rules faded into the background as he really started roleplaying. I was quite impressed actually. By his performance, how quickly he grasped the essentials of the system and how little the system got in the way. I did play fairly loosely with the rules, but still. I'm not sure it would have been as easy with D&D or GURPS for example.

As in Berlin 61 but without the Nasties? I've just discovered the Vorkosigan books and am having lots of fun. I heard there was a planned GURPS book but that seems to be in some kind of limbo at the moment. I think I'd rather see something like Vorkosigan, a relatively light-hearted and over the top Space opera.

The fact that PDFs tend to be a bit cheaper than printed books, especially when you count in horrible things like shipping to Europe, doesn't hurt. And you can get the book now.

Let's hope BRP becomes a roaring success, selling in the millions making Chaosium (and Jason) really really rich so they can hire full time staff to deal with customers and their on-line presence.:party:

Steve Jackson Games release all their hardcover GURPS books as pdfs, with the exception of the two main rulebooks. Until recently there was a delay of three months, they've just changed that as they don't think the PDFs impact the sales of the physical books much. They also release quite a bit of shorter works as PDF-only. Personally, I prefer to curl up on the couch with a book, but for shorter works PDFs are fine. And once someone invents a dirt cheap and really good ebook reader/tablet pc thing I'm likely to go all digital.

Hey, mr Triff! Will we get a report?

This sounds like the game I've been waiting for for some 30 years or so. I want my four-armed friend with gun and sword and green-skinned princess in silky veils and tiara. I want ruins of ancient cities built from cyclopean stones and toppled pillars half-covered in creeping vines of poisonous flowers, used by the priests of the Ivory Eidolon to make Dream Wine. So, you can put me down for a copy too :-)

A minimum amount of POW could be required to use a certain systems. e.g., A Sirling-Whatson Shield generator Mk III would require POW 15. A Mk IV might require POW 20.

I don't think I've ever used it on any forum.

Either way is fine.

Not sure if it's been mentioned but something inspired by Robert Holdstock's setting in Mythago Wood would be cool.

Looks good to me, but then I'm easy :-)