svensson

4 hours ago, kross said:

I'd also recommend Magic World, for many of the same reasons as svensson. I also find the Major Wounds rules to be preferable and simpler than separate hit locations used by other D100 systems (plus I think it kinda covers the same ground as specific locations, albeit in more of a shorthand manner). I think you'll also find Magic World's character creation is quicker, since skills are distributed in specified chunks. You can always supplement creatures, spells, and spot rules with elements from the BRP rules or CoC, RQ, or whatever else you have at hand.

See, and that's a couple of the things I'm dissatisfied about with Magic World

See, I like the hit location tables a lot. To my mind it gives players the idea that combat is far, far deadlier than DnD and similar systems. Yes, it's an extra layer of detail and you don't always want that, but one of the important differences between RQ/BRP/d100 and other FRPG mechanics is the very deadliness I'm describing. There is no such thing as 'a warm up fight' in RQ. Even if you're being attacked by band of trollkin [Glorantha's answer to DnD's goblins], characters can't just trivialize it. Every time you pull your blade out in RQ, it's a matter of life and death and a desperate trollkin with a spear can kill you faster than than the time it takes to talk about it.

On 3/17/2019 at 2:44 AM, Crel said:

What's the point of stacking this?

 

Overall, I like this cult. I like how it feels vaguely trickster-y, without being "Oops I murdered the Thane again teehee." This feeling comes about particularly because of Without A Trace. I feel like that spell should be one-use; it's kind of a fixed-cost DI, really.

The name doesn't make sense to me. I see that it's an Orlanth sub-cult, but it feels weird that the cult worships "Desemborth the Thief" instead of "Orlanth Stickyfingers" or something like that, to follow the examples of Orlanth Thunderous, Orlanth Adventurous, Orlanth Rex, and so on. But the "stealing, using magical shenanigans" theme is strong, and I find it evocative for my imagination.

With the new Runes and Passions augments, it might be possible to defeat spells. Certainly you'd want a couple extra magic points behind them to defeat magical detection.

There's logic on both sides of the 'stackable or not' argument.

I'm of two minds about both of them.

I'm trying to 'convert' some DnD fans I know to BRP/RQ/d100 systems and I haven't found BRP or OpenQuest or Magic World to be just right for what I'm trying to do.

If I had to pick between the two you mention, I think I'd go with Magic World because almost everything you need is in one spot. There's even a bestiary in the book so you don't have to get too RuneQuest or CoC with your monster selections.

31 minutes ago, PhilHibbs said:

I know what the rules say, I'm just not going to enforce that rule. I'm sure some groups will be fine with it. I know mine would not be.

Fair enough. Your role as the GM is to play to your audience.

3 hours ago, styopa said:

Oooh, I like that.  Well played, sir.

That should be '80%+ Passions, not Runes, Sty.

37 minutes ago, PhilHibbs said:

I can't imagine ever using that mechanic to direct a character action. I'd instantly lose the confidence of my players if I did that, it would be game over.

OK, the Passions rules are pretty clear on that. The mechanical downside of having a Passion [and I realize my typo there, I'll correct it] of 80%+ is that your Passions may overtake your good sense. You may [not 'must'] have your emotions take control of your actions at an appropriate and dramatic moment if the GM rules it necessary. Earth myth and heroic fiction in several genres are rife with such personal turmoil.

Consider this scene from the movie 'Tombstone'... the Earp Brothers are walking down the street when a drunken Johnny Ringo loses his temper and begins insulting them, despite the fact that he is drunk [major negative modifier to Agility and Manipulation skills] and seriously outnumbered. Though Wyatt shows that he's unarmed, both his brothers are armed and Doc Holliday is also present and looking for an excuse to kill him, but shooting down an unarmed man would have major Reputation consequences, though you could legitimately counter that Ringo's Rep is so bad that he can't damage it that much anymore.  This is an example of Passions leading to unwise actions and almost fatal consequences.

[link to video below]

12 minutes ago, Steve3742 said:

Hmmm... I'm not a fan of buying things and not using them but in your case, you might want to consider keeping that copy as a memento and either buying a 'work' copy or printing out the PDF into a work copy. If you do the latter, and you're into bookbinding, you could make it look fancy - bound in red (or terracotta) leather with an engraved Man Rune on the front, for example. See this You Tube Video for ideas. Or this one.

I agree with that. I don't keep multiples copies of 90% of the games I own. Very few of us have shelf space for that. But you're right about my current copy being a memento.

My purpose in buying the slipcover edition is to get the additional materials [Bestiary and GM Pack] and have a cover to protect the memento copy. That and supporting both Chaosium and my FLGS, of course.

1 hour ago, styopa said:

Yeah me too but I sympathize.  Some of us have been cheerfully houseruling for decades...in fact it's sort of a hard habit to break.

But in terms of salability and attractiveness to NEW players, the rules should be effectively complete and functional WITHOUT GM HRs.

It's always seemed to me that if you need a page full of house rules, you're using the wrong rules. Of course, that all depends on the rules you're using. When DnD 3.0 came out, there were some things that had not been dealt with in playtesting [grapple attacks, for one famous example], and almost everybody house ruled something that vexed them. Since then, rules have become more refined and playtesting actively looks for unusual situations to attend to.

And remember folks, our whole hobby is based on 10 or pages of supplementary rules in the back of Chainmail. It can be fairly argued that everything since then has been one big house rule

9 hours ago, Julian Lord said:

Ducks Questing for pints of heady Ales through the Marshlands -- a perfect plan !!!

It comes in pints?

--Perequack Took

-'Lord of the Bills Book One, Fellowship of the Beak'

34 minutes ago, Joerg said:

May I politely suggest to relegate the All Ducks mode to an optional modus, or a mod?

DUCKS WILL BE A PLAYABLE RACE IN THE VANILLA GAME! ANYTHING LESS WOULD BE UN-GLORANTHA-LIKE!

[Okay, I admit it. I'm not much of a Duck fan either, but if we can have pygmies on ostriches....]

OK, boys and girls, get a grip shall we?

The edition is on your continent. It is being transported as we speak to your distributor of choice, be it Chaosium or your FLGS. You will have it in your grubby little covetous fingers within a month. So breathe. Even if you hold your breath until you turn blue, they won't get there any faster.

Don't get me wrong here... I wantz da Preciouseses too, at least as much as you do. My only physical copy of the RQG rules has Greg Stafford's autograph and I'm terrified of it getting buggered up.

53 minutes ago, Mechashef said:

Thst still leaves us with the problem that a character can only “sneak” once (or twice) a session.

No, they can only augment a skill roll once or twice as session. The whole point here is to keep players from circumventing actually training their skills... they shouldn't rely on 'to Hell with it, I'll just make Dark Rune roll' instead of actually spending money training Sneak skill...

I don't like mechanics taking the place of thought, planning, and effort. And as a referee, I don't  put PCs in positions where mechanics have to save them.

1 hour ago, Bill the barbarian said:

OH MY GOD! I really hate to sound like a teen age girl but I just realized that every RPG in the world needs a "My name in Inigo Montoya, you killed my father , now prepare to die" rule!

Otherwise it seems like great points have been made; that skill augments only need a realistic limitation. (use that rare skill Employ Common Sense__% ◻︎) and that  passions and runes should be "usually" limited to once a session (but once again a success roll in Employ Common Sense roll will allow more attempts). Seems to me that is why there is a referee who can make these decisions. I have a feeling that this might become a HR in my my game.

Cheers

In most of my games, I clearly point out to players when their character concepts are in danger of being overturned by power-gaming.

Point buy games with advantages and disadvantages are great for that. Nothing spurs a player into action like finding out that his Dark Secret is going to be revealed [with all the in-game consequences thereof] but that you'll also be subtracting all the points he spent on that Dark Secret in character generation from his future character improvement points if he doesn't act within the strictures of his self-imposed build. [GURPS, L5R, Champions, etc.]

In a more open build game like BRP or RQ, the referee can't be so heavy handed, but there still ought to be consequences for not living up to their own build. Yanioth not taking the opportunity to smite the Lunar Empire after she's invested so much effort in her character concept and build in Revenge Daddy [character background story] and Hate Empire [actual percentile number on C-sheet] would be ridiculous.

I can't remember where I got this this phrase, but I've taken to calling your own character concept and build coming back to bite you in the ass as 'The Plot Harpoon'. As in, "That meaty *thwack* sound you just heard was the Plot Harpoon sinking in, 'Bob'..."

Rules exist to provide framework to player actions. It is the method by which games confirm that gravity most often pulls downwards and fireballs do xDy damage. I myself prefer some fairly firm rules to limit the amount 'uberGawdliness' that player characters can get up to. Others are more freeform with it. At the end of the day, RQ has ONE hard and fast rule: Maximum Game Fun. Stick with that one and you'll probably be alright.

As to the specific question in the top post, I would work a trade-off with players. If they will use Runes to augment one roll a session, the GM can only use their 80%+ Passions to direct character actions once per session at an appropriately dramatic time. That seems reasonable to me.

[note: @PhilHibbs showed me a typo that considerably changed my point here. Sorry 'bout that.]

Fortunately I'm lucky enough to have a second option if my local store doesn't want to be part of B&M. It's farther away, and through some traffic [but then, it's I-5... EVERYTHING is through traffic], but at least it's an option.

In any event, I'll cold damned if I'll buy through Amazon. I like shopping a game store and there's just not that many of them left.

Well, it'll be a video game. Somebody is gonna bitch about something I mean, look at all the fans of WH40K who still find something to gripe about with every game release.

I don't know of one fanbase that is 100% with a game release.

9 minutes ago, Bill the barbarian said:

Taste is so subjective that while I love a good debate on art I refuse to pin much weight to it. But, in any case very nice!

Absolutely. I think I would have preferred to hear more of the story instead of his 'gishgudi solo' But at the end of the day, I am a better historian and gamer from having heard this and knowing that it exists. Whatever criticism I may have about it is surpassed by my respect for the scholarship.

2 minutes ago, styopa said:

For those wanting an ESSENTIAL feeling of Glorantha, I'll just remind you there's a terrific game already out there today: https://store.steampowered.com/app/352220/King_of_Dragon_Pass/

 

King of Dragon Pass is outstanding, entertaining, fairly hard, and above all quintessentially Glorantha.

And for those of you with Apple systems, Dave Dunham has released a sequel of KODP called Six Ages, link below

https://store.steampowered.com/app/881420/Six_Ages_Ride_Like_the_Wind/

@jarulf @Bill the barbarian

I'm glad you guys liked it. I didn't care for Pringle's [the artist] presentation style, but that's just my taste. That aside, I am deeply impressed with whole thing. Learning a dead language to the extent that you can perform its national mythological cycle worthy of respect and I absolutely do. And I think that some familiarity with Gilgamesh is something that many gamers generally lack. We all have some notion of the Elder Eddas, King Arthur, Beowulf, and the Greek myths [at least as told by Edith Hamilton], but far less of the actual myths of Egypt, of Rustam, of the actual gods such as Bel and Ishtar [as they were actually worshipped, Conan novels aside] etc.

13 minutes ago, jarulf said:

I'm suddenly curious what the music will be like.

OK, this guy really, really overplays it, but here is about 4 minutes of the Epic of Gilgamesh in Sumerian played on a period lute-like instrument called a gishgudi. Inasmuch as Gilgamesh is the spiritual ancestor of Glorantha and one of Greg's major influences, it's worth a listen.

6 hours ago, jarulf said:

It would be amazingly cool to wander the streets of Pavis in 1st person. To walk up to the gates of Clearwine or see those painted cave walls from the rule book, in the light of the setting Yelm.

Or pretty much any other place in Glorantha.

Yeah watching Krogar Wolfhelm stare daggers at Jotoran Longsword at Gimpy's would be just plain awesome.

Or putting a party together on a private server and running the The Giant's Cradle... I really can see it in my mind's eye.

I'm pretty much done with the whole MMO thing, but then I've been mucking about with them since Ultima Online and EQ1, so...

That's no hack on those who enjoy them, but I find the constant grind without a story and trying to find a decent PUG to take care of the mandatory raid content to be a real detraction from my personal experience. When I get into a game, I enjoy the story and the personal epic and 'Barrens chat' [and every game has someplace like that] just gets in the way of that for me.

And to be honest, I have more than a little bit of troll in me If I get annoyed with somebody enough, I can turn into a complete online jerk. So, I don't put myself into those situations. I think of it as a public service... lol!

Again, for those who enjoy the more social aspects of gaming, Mazel Tov! and enjoy. Do your thing and have fun doing it.

I am thrilled that RQ is finally getting some RPG computer game love. Dave Dunham's KODP is wonderful game, but oftentimes it leaves me hungry for a more personal experience in Glorantha. I'm looking forward to further details.

But first, Cyberpunk 2077 and maybe Elder Scrolls 6... by the time I've devoured those, RQVG [RuneQuestVideoGame] ought to be about ready.

9 hours ago, Runeblogger said:

😁

What would you do if you were Takeda?

I think he's going to retreat as fast as he can, as he has obviously subestimated his enemy, and even if his troops outnumber the local forces, they are in mountainous territory and it's too easy for the local samurai to ambush them. He is then going to offer a non-agression treaty and focus on invading Shinano from the east.

-----------

However, some years later, he might have conquered all of Shinano. And then he may be tempted to crush those pesky samurai who thwarted his plan. So thanks a lot for your suggestion. How would you then plan that mission? 

It depends on how important Sugura Province is to him.

He may look at Sugura's situation and see exploitable weakness. You describe the province's status as precarious... A spoiled brat for a liege lord, an army that is tired and low on gunpowder, damage from recent natural disasters... All of that could make Sugura look like a wounded deer to a pack of wolves.

On the other hand, if Shingen is focused on finishing his work in Shinano, he might see Sugura as a distraction that doesn't have much of an up side for him. The Kwanto provinces are certainly more wealthy. If he controls those, he controls most of the rice production in all of Honshu. Controlling Sugura just give him a port, and seaports are not all that important to Honshu daimyo.

So Shingen may see those pesky samurai as either cunning opponents worthy of respect or as bugs that need to be stomped. Either way, I would certainly have the Takeda start spending some koku to dig up dirt on Our Heroes in order to blackmail them at a later date. They're obviously a major pillar of support for Sugura's daimyo, and it's in the Takeda's best interests to be able to topple them if needs be.

Another idea strikes me as well...

You might introduce religious problems in the form of the Ikko-Ikki sohei. A fiery young Buddhist preacher establishes a monastery nearby and starts preaching about the decadence of samurai. This attracts the farmers and ronin in the area, who form a religious crusading army seeming from out of nowhere. Naturally, this monastery is in a highly defensible location. The situation could be resolved diplomatically if agents of the Sugura daimyo can convince the preacher of their piety and righteousness. OR the players could have another Ishiyama Hongan-ji War on their hands...

Lastly...

There are downloadable resources from L5R [which will certainly require some converting] as well as the earlier samurai games of Bushido by FGU, Sengoku by Gold Rush games, RQ3's Land of Ninja box set, and Mongoose's RQ2 /Legend Land of the Samurai, which was retitled Samurai of Legend.

I don't know of any KAP-specific scenarios. I've only played the game peripherally a couple of times.

However, historically there is a bunch of intrigue that you can use. They could be sent off as emissary /observers for their liege. In 1550, Takeda Shingen has just finished conquering Shinano Province, thereby taking control of the mountainous spine of Northern Honshu. It's a direct gateway to the fertile Kwanto Plain provinces, and everybody is wondering which way he's gonna jump next. This eventually leads to his conflict with the Uesugi of Echigo Province, but that's a couple years into the future. As of 1550, he's mopping up the last resistance in Shinano and is a major power in the Game of Daimyos.

And wouldn't you know it, your setting of Suruga Province is right next door to the Takeda home of Kai Province. Pretty sure the Uncle Regent would like to have some sense of where Shingen is going to be nosing around next, wouldn't he?

[link to wiki article on Takeda Shingen]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takeda_Shingen

I'd be looking for the product to be available by 31 March, as they announced earlier. I've got it on pre-order with my FLGS, but the distributor has an order in for it.