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svensson

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Everything posted by svensson

  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.
  16. There is a very simple way to show the players the 'community asset' emphasis in RQG. Apprentices. Acolytes. Foster children. Squires. Hangers-on. All of which have to be fed, protected, trained, and elevated [given livelihoods, introductions, pensions, something for their future lives]. And while YOUR Player Character miserly arse is willing to sleep in the stable, drink water and the cheapest beer available and eat turnip mush with hard tack on a daily basis, your reputation will suffer mightily if you try and serve your followers that literal beggar's banquet. In addition, all these folks have be to armed out of your pocket, trained out of your time, taught the magical arts so absolutely necessary to survive in Glorantha out of your time... And the quality of all that directly effects how your character is seen by the world. If you show up in a silk tunic with rare dyes and dripping jewels but your trainee is in stinking untanned buckskins and burlap tunic, YOU are the one that's gonna suffer. I suggest to the board that caring for and protecting a train of followers will easily eat up that 90% of income and time we're discussing and will CERTAINLY reinforce the values of community involvement we're also discussing because a 'community' of the group's train is following them. Even Hahlgrim Ironbreaker got saddled with a Lunar stripling, something he needed like another hole in the head. Yet it was his duty via kinship ties to shelter Paulis Longvale 'for a summer's seasoning' [and oh what a summer it was!]. When King Boltor summoned Hahlgrim to fight Chaos, Hahlgrim was obliged to bring this kid [aka 'beginning adventurer'] along for a very tough but educational ride. And just imagine the damage to Hahlgrim's reputation if Paulis had gotten his fool arse killed in the process... But to Hahlgrim's everlasting credit, if not his fame, Paulis left the care of Hahlgrim and the Bilini with a deep respect for the Orlanthi, vastly more knowledge about the world, materially far better off, and an altogether better man than when he arrived last spring. Fame may be crowned by great deeds, but it is built by little ones.
  17. OK, as usual the discussion is wide-ranging, though oddly for us we haven't digressed completely off the track. 😁 I'll address some of the stuff I'm seeing as a point-by-point just to keep my own thoughts organized. 1. It's the GMs job to help the player visualize their character sheet and the Epic Story of their career. Reconciling the story and the numbers has always been the chief burden of the narrator and this is why we have to remember to give some leeway in how the players use their skills and not stifle their creativity. 2. I'm hoping that Jar-Eel and Aelwin's situation becomes more clear when the Lunars Gods book comes out this month. I don't perceive them having much of a shaman component at all, but I might be wrong. 3. Vasana's Band may not be a part of the Sartar Magical Union, though they could easily develop that way. Right now Vasana is on the path of Herodom and so I see her friends, apprentices, and hangers-on as a more temporal Hero Band and doers of things Argrath wants done on Glorantha rather than the Hero Plane. This is entirely fine. The Hero Wars will be fought on multiple battlefields [Mundane Plane, Hero Plane, Spirit Plane, the Hells, and so forth] and Argrath is gonna need assets in every one of them.
  18. It looks like I'm getting 'mooned' by Frank Zappa... 😁
  19. There is a difference between the acceptance of your own existence and the philosophical reasoning to understand your nature, especially the negative aspects of your character.
  20. And one would think that something like the Bat would ring the Sense Chaos bell like a cathedral at Christmas
  21. Well, there is one major detail in Vishi's story that is important in the 'wandering adventurer' statement. Vishi IS NOT a shaman of Grandmother High Llama or any other tribal spirit confined to Prax. He is a shaman of the White Bull, aka Argrath. His wanderings are in direct service to the cult and in support of Argrath's aims just as much as Vasana's are. While Vishi doesn't have an infrastructure to support, he does have to spend significant amounts of time in the Otherworld questing and growing in power completely separate from the party's adventuring goals. This leaves him little time for a 'day job', so to speak. That is one aspect of the sample party narrative I wish the writers of the authors had thought of... the transition of 'Bob the Farmer' into both an adventurer and to possibly a Rune level worshiper of his deity. All the magicians in Vasana's Band are society's outliers... a noble woman, a professional temple-raised priestess, a professional shaman... they're not 'Annie the Craftswoman' or 'Bob the Farmer'. It can be difficult to reconcile what's on your character sheet with Vasana's epic tale.
  22. Good question. I'd tell you to ask Oddi the Keen, but he'd probably answer with a riddle. A NYSALOR riddle 😁 Jokes aside, as I have read Glorantha over the years there are good 'Stafford-ism' arguments for yes and no. If it were my table, my logic would go like this: "In Glorantha, all knowledge and all power comes with a price. The price of Illumination is a sense of disillusionment and disconnectedness with your people and your deity, the two most important emotional connections a Gloranthan has. So with those two pieces of information, I would tend to think no, you can no longer 'Sense' Chaos mystically, but your other senses can identify it with greater clarity. Therefore, a Buller gets to keep the Sense Chaos skill, but it can never be increased and will be described by the GM differently. Instead of 'Yes, you Sense this person might be Chaotic', I might describe it as 'Your previous experiences lead you to think this might be Chaotic behavior. The guy may be Chaotic, but he might also just be crazy. Or perhaps he's afflicted with a spirit.'
  23. It absolutely does. See my review of the first episode above. My wife and I were equally impressed with the second episode.
  24. The file I mentioned is uploaded under the name 'Ransom Customs IMGU' Thanks for the encouragement
  25. Version 1.0.0

    10 downloads

    This is a distillation of my comments regarding Ransom in the forums. It covers the process of ransoming, the customs of prisoner treatment, the role of the herald, and the controversial subject of selling captives as slaves.
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