BigJackBrass

It should have been five reasons, of course, but he inexplicably neglected to mention ducks

Fantastic; been eagerly awaiting this, especially after being lucky enough to play in a session Ian ran at the UK Games Expo this year. On the other hand, not a great time for the pound to tank against the dollar... ?

This is the best approach I've seen, similar to that taken by Green Ronin with their Freeport book a few years ago. Big stat blocks equal less content for me; having them collected separately, in a PDF for easy printing, is much more useful. Given the range of different Glorantha systems now clamouring for support it seems like an effective and efficient compromise.

That's great, thank you. I'd missed that. And Glorantha is fine (I'll be running a Gloranthan adventure in a couple of hours, indeed), although I still reckon a Cthulhu supplement would work terrifically well with the system.

With so much happening over the past year and the focus inevitably (and perhaps quite rightly) being on RQ and CoC it does feel a little like HeroQuest has been set aside and rather overlooked in recent discussions. For me this has happened at a time when I've finally been able to play the game and get my home group excited about it. I may well have missed some announcements, so could anyone tell me where things stand with upcoming HeroQuest books? I know that D101 have another adventure book trickling through the pipeline, but what else can we look forward to? and when might it arrive?

I was just looking at the Leisuregames.com new releases page and saw that they have the Traveller core rulebook, which they're parenthetically calling the 2016 edition. That seems reasonable for a game with a long history and multiple editions from different publishers, so I think I'll personally be calling the new game RuneQuest (2016) ... unless it comes out next year.

The best attempt I've seen at that sort of thing is Greg Porter's EABA, which has all manner of bells and whistles built in. Unfortunately, on mobile platforms only one iOS app handles it well and virtually nothing for Android copes adequately. If you're aiming primarily for a portable system then I'd be wary of getting too fancy with the PDF.

No specific scenario suggestions, I'm afraid, but a word of caution: my GM tried something similar (it's not a bad idea) but unfortunately had Jackson tell the characters about disturbing goings-on and fears that he was being followed. The GM's wife, unused to the inherent assumptions in scenario setups, immediately took charge and refused to let Jackson out of her sight or return to his hotel. In the end, the GM had to resort to a drive-by shooting to kill him... I'd also suggest changing Jackson's name. Even if they've not played Masks there's a good chance that your players will recognise the character.

In the mid-eighties Pacesetter put out several quite innovative RPGs aiming particularly at getting over the initial difficulties of learning to play and run role-playing games. CHILL is perhaps the best remembered and it included an adventure designed to be played before reading the rules! Naturally it led the GM by the hand and the players by the nose, but it was a great introduction... until the bit that basically said "Don't let the characters go upstairs yet!" No suggestions on how to stop them, you understand, just an instruction that they shouldn't go. I certainly agree that we've seen a fair few changes in how games are presented and played, but I'm not sure that I'd say that things like an anime influence and heavy railroading are key points. As has already been mentioned the heavily scripted, linear adventure goes right back to the early days. What I personally miss is the idea that a 48 page rulebook gives you everything you need to get going... sometimes it's just a bit much to try to read an epic when you want to run a one off.

I pre-ordered that game and loved being able to read through the PDF while I awaited the release of the hardcover. Not only that, the PDF included both landscape and portrait formats! Very classy... but I'd never have just bought the PDF without the physical book.

I agree entirely. The trouble with PDFs is that I have to print them out (not having a laptop, nor any desire to use one at the gaming table really), which is fine for an adventure or supplement of perhaps 32 or 48 pages but hardly cost-effective for anything beyond that. However, I sometimes find it handy to be able to print sections of larger books to use as player handouts or reference materials, so having books available in both formats, perhaps with very short or niche products only in PDF, would be the ideal for me.

It's mainly recordings of another group, originally from Bradford but now relocated to Texas, but Hal and Lindsay who run the site have kindly allowed other people to submit their own recordings. The site gained some fame a couple of years ago when they recorded a complete run through The World's largest Dungeon... in forty long episodes!

Evenin' all, Continuing my quest to clog up all of the better RPG forums with my presence I thought it high time to register here, particularly since I've enjoyed (and admired) the Chaosium system since, ooh, far too long ago. Don't want to show my long-in-the-toothedness too early I'm an occasional games designer and cartoonist but most of my role-playing involvement these days is producing "actual play" recordings for RPGMP3.com under the Whartson Hall banner. Expect BRP to make an appearance on our playlist soon.