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svensson

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svensson last won the day on March 8

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About svensson

  • Birthday October 26

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  • RPG Biography
    Been playing since nineteen-seventy-mumble. I remember having to pass through picket lines of evangelicals to get to my toy store to buy DnD and Traveller.
  • Current games
    BRP, RQG, Pathfinder, L5R RPG, Traveller
  • Location
    Tacoma WA
  • Blurb
    Historian. Reenactor. Teacher. Gamer.

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  1. So, keeping this in the BRUGE realm, you can assume that most rolls for a native are automatic. It's when you get into the nit-picky details of culture that rolls are even called for. I would give Culture [Native] about 35%. This would represent basic cultural 'literacy' for someone with little formal schooling but who was raised in said culture..
  2. Sadly, nostalgia jacks up the price by 150% of CURRENT retail value, not ORIGINAL. And when you're an RQ or Traveller fan like myself, it's a rare thing indeed to find your treasures at the used book store.
  3. There's the list in order: 1. New Pavis: The City on the Edge of Forever 2. Old Pavis: The City that Time Forgot 3. Pavis and Beyond: Secrets of the Borderland 4. Old Pavis (II): The Good, the Bad, and the Rowdy Ian also recommends and refers to pages in the Glorantha Classics 1: Pavis and the Big Rubble pdf.
  4. Do androids dream of electric sheep? πŸ˜† [I'd tell you I couldn't help myself, but fact is that I didn't even try]
  5. For those of you who didn't know or cannot get it with your services, F/X's remake of Shogun is currently streaming on Hulu in the US. A previous commentator said it's on Disney+ in the UK. The series premiered on 27 FEB with the first two episodes, and a new episode follows each week on Tuesday until the conclusion on 23 April. By way of formatting, when I compare the original to the remake I'll refer to the original as 'Shogun 80' and the remake as Shogun FX. I continue to be amazed at this series. Episode 4, 'The Eightfold Fence' streamed last night and I thought it was pretty amazing. Shogun FX takes some writing liberties with the novel and Shogun 80 but I have to say that each instance that I've seen has made the story and characters more clear and more realistic. In this episode, Blackthorne is asked to help train a 'regiment' of samurai to use European tactics. Now, the book explains how he knew enough about European tactics to advise professional warriors like samurai, but in Shogun FX, Blackthorne is more realistically portrayed as naval specialist. Makes sense, right? So in Shogun FX Blackthorne teaches samurai gunners how to effectively deploy cannon using a compass and gunner's protractor to effectively aim the pieces. He also teaches them the different kind of shot other than just round shot [chain shot, for example]. And in one particularly brutal example, the filmmakers did not blink at showing the effectiveness of such tactics to troops in the open. Again, it's this attention to reality that DEEPLY impresses me. Here's why I've mentioned that I am a Civil War reenactor. We use cannon in our skirmish battles in that we load powder but no shot. One of our members owns a farm out in the rural part of my home state and had two large hogs that needed to be put down due to disease. That member was also a cannoneer who owned one of our pieces. So he invited a bunch of us to a cookout. He had three hogs humanely euthanized [two diseased hogs and the center piece of the cookout] and then the next morning demonstrated what a real smoothbore cannon firing round shot and canister [think of it as a shotgun shell the size of your head] using the diseased hogs carcasses. It was 'educational' to say the least. Then he sealed the diseased carcasses in a plastic barrel and sent them to be cremated as our local laws require. Since then, as a company First Sergeant and now a commander, I insist that my troops take at least 1/3 casualties when we're 'hit' with a cannon blast. Other aspects of Shogun FX continue to impress me as well. Several characters that were glossed over the book are given greater depth and greater agency in this version, something that I appreciate. And at least one character that I never liked very much is sidelined. All in all. I can't recommend this production enough for those of you who are interested in RQ/BRP/CoC for other settings. This show has me reexamining my copies of Land of Ninja and Samurai of Legend quite closely.
  6. Hey, it's nice to see one of the 'dumb ideas' of your youth pan out. GRATZ!
  7. That would go a long way towards getting more RQ content on all the VTT platforms. And let me just go ahead and say it, NICE WORK so far. I look forward to seeing more of this project!
  8. svensson

    map source

    That's alright. For some ungodly reason my brain said 'Boldhome' instead of Whitewall.... DOH!
  9. svensson

    map source

    This map has been superseded by a newer map in the GMs Pack. Otherwise, no I don't know what the topo contour line scale is. This map was probably designed with an eye to the Celtic hillfort called Maiden Castle in Dorset, England. Wiki link below. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maiden_Castle%2C_Dorset
  10. In regards to 'gallivanting'πŸ˜† Yes, there needs to be a discussion between the players and ref as to how they want the campaign to go, its focus and directions. The players need to be clear about the kind of adventure they're looking for. The referee needs to be clear about the theme, sandbox, etc. There's nothing wrong with wanting some sidebar jaunts to the odd places on the map, so long as it can be structured into the narrative. But the key to all this is communication with all parties.
  11. LOVE that Viking scenario.
  12. [airquote] 'instincts' [/airquote] πŸ˜πŸ˜†
  13. Let me also say that I fully acknowledge that RQG is VERY different from its earlier editions with its focus on community involvement. ALL our PCs in RQ2 and 3 would think of having steading full of groupies as something that would put a frikkin' halt to an adventuring life. In most milieux that would be true. It would be true in the Fantasy Europe of Cormac the Pict, it would be true in the Forgotten Realms, or the cities of Greyhawk, Lankhmar and Sanctuary. But this is no longer applicable for RQG as written. The difference is that the community is now very much a character in the game, something more that a collection of bars, libraries and gear shops. RQG seeks to make the community part of the character's identity, something more than just a few lines of 'Background and History' on a character sheet. And, of course, absolutely none of this discussion should get in the way of Maximum Game Fun and YGMV. The mechanics work even if you just handwave all the community stuff and stay with the 'good stuff' of stabbing the darkness with a stick to see what bites back.
  14. I made an RQ3 attempt at Harn that didn't work out all that well. Part of it is the Shek-Pvar convocation system and parsing which spells go where. Part of it was the needless complications of RQ3 Sorcery, something I never did really get the hang of. I tend to disagree about HarnMaster being a 'cousin' of BRP.... While there are some similarities [no character classes, etc.], the rules of the game are unnecessarily complicated and very ticky tack. NOTHING is 'simple' in HM, and I've had difficulty really learning the system.
  15. Phill, you're a fellow grog so I'll assume you're familiar with either edition of Cults of Terror. Isn't the tale of Hahlgrim Ironbreaker epic enough? Each Rune level has a trail of hangers-on... In the chapter on Bagog, Paulis cites 17 members in the band. And each one of those members contributed to the victory versus 'demons' and scorpionmen that night. A Rune level is expected to attract followers, it's part and parcel to the job. One of their principal roles is to lead worship, teach cultists skills and spells, officiate rituals, and otherwise contribute to the community as a whole. Now that doesn't mean that Vasana is going to allow her Vingan woman-at-arms to go ducking into Snakepipe Hollow with her any more than Hahlgrim let Paulis on the raid of the Vivamort den in CoT. Some things are above their pay grade, as Nathem found out on Vasana's first attempt into the Caves [described in the RQG Core Rules]. But at her level, given her fame, Vasana WILL attract followers. The whole point of RQG is making the heroes part of a community, with oaths and ties and relationships and responsibilities. Lone wolf murder hobos are for DnD, and RQG has consistently emphasized the differences between the two play styles. So if the players want to be traveling heroes instead of tied to a city, tula, regiment, or other community, having a small tribe of hangers-on allows them to do that.
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