Atlantean

Very much so! Your descriptions made the mechanics for liminal spaces like fairy circles so much more practical.

Well deserved!!

Finally had my copy printed out with high quality glossy print and bound at the printers. Absolutely fantastic addition to the rules set! Filled some large gaps in game mechanics and now I won’t have to sift through multiple versions during games anymore. Well done!

Not being a hyper rationalist, I wouldn’t look to any canonical statement. First edition RuneQuest is all Glorantha and the mythic element is what drives it. So many mechanics are missing (hiring henchmen, how many monsters show up if a random encounter table is even available, so many more) that granular pulp interactions are very difficult to play.

Being most recently immersed in BROSR style play and the attendant conversations thereof, the primary story model for one style of play (label it what you will) is “pulp fiction” (see Jeffro Johnson’s blog and book “Appendix N.”) RuneQuest in its classical form uses the myth/legend as story model so play tends to be very different. The primary driver of the difference, imo, is how magic is treated in the game. 5e made magic ubiquitous and morphed into a weird little d20 simulacrum of RuneQuest. Most of the BX crowd are playing LFG whether they realize it or not where Low Fantasy Gaming is anthropocentric with restricted magic. As an edit, an example of this treatment of magic is the difference between RQG and Call of Cthulhu.

One of the things I have learned from my return to the d20 crowd is that blogging about the game increases engagement and allows folks to share best practices. This is a blog from the ACKS game in which I am currently playing https://bdubsanddragons.blogspot.com/2022/03/dubzaron-session-46-nine-thousand.html This is the blog from my current RQ game (set in Bronze Age Wales) https://bronzeagewales.blogspot.com/

Good point. My RQ game has been in person for two years now but am adding in an online component on Roll20. I have been in an ACKS game as a player for a little over two years which has been Roll20 sessions and pbp during a very active downtime. I am hoping to bring that to the RQ Roll20 game so that we will have 2-3 contemporaneous bands of PC’s wandering about.

Indeed! I need to spend some time with that, it would seem.

How often do you meet for gaming sessions? Do you track 1:1 time when not in session?

Fantastic!

I am not exaggerating when I say reading through your creation offered me an epiphany regarding the ritual overlay intrinsic in RQ approach to magic. It has always been the strongest part of the game but you have succeeded in making explicit what was before only implicit. So many examples from my game fit paradigms you described (e.g magic road or cult initiation). I included a piece done by Mae (character in the game) reflecting a Magic Road that may be turning up often now that I understand what we did. Our game setting is Bronze Age Wales but the concepts translate well.

That is absolutely fantastic! Do you know if they blog session reports or considered doing so?

Is there a blog site or record of longest running RuneQuest game?

I have used it for ambush situations and it seemed to work well. I don’t see another option for passive detection. It is something in 5e that seems to work well (not quite the only thing but close!)

That is the way I have been running it as well. Have you used a Luck modifier/augment at all?

Beautiful!

Well, that’s the point really. There is not a mechanic in RuneQuest for determining the state of Surprise which is a defined state within the game. There does exist “when you notice it”. If you notice it because you have been stabbed, you are, in fact, surprised. If you notice the troll a ways out, it may well not notice you until a large rock has fallen on it…resulting in it having been surprised.

Farsee doesn’t add to the skill but it does set an encounter distance to allow “buffing” and other preparations for the encounter, potentially even setting an ambush.

Thank you so much! I have been using the most appropriate detection skill (makes Farsee a powerful spell!). Do you factor in a Luck roll?

Crazy thing is they have introduced a minor mechanism for the creation of Petty Heroes from player characters…which we did successfully in a game. It does a great job with economics and downtime activities which I am (partially) importing into my RQ game. Magic system is basic Vancian and really not what I want in a game.

I completely agree with you. The “gotcha” moments encouraging a high probability of failure that discourage proper planning was what drove me away from AD&D years ago and have maintained a distaste for ACKS even now. 5e is a RuneQuest simulacrum with the surprise mechanics being among the worst parts of the system. Do you use Luck in any way on the surprise determination (skill augment or allow a perception roll)?

Why?

Absolutely excellent resource. It both confirmed my observation that this was more of a potential than an actual facet of the game…and actualized it in an accessible manner! Very, very well done!

I have been impressed with ACKS and it’s ability to create a shared story environment which frees the game master to participate in the story telling without railroading characters into predetermined outcomes. The RuneQuest magic system is far superior, though, as is the character development in play, so I am working to improve this deficit in RuneQuest.

The saw heard/not able to react would not cause a strike rank modifier. Troll charging across the field while you are harvesting the field is a nasty situation, to be sure, but you can raise the alarm, cast a spell, run away.