Jump to content

svensson

Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    2,095

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    30

 Content Type 

Everything posted by svensson

  1. svensson
    Just d/l'd this and took a look. I'm a long time Traveller and BRP/RQ/CoC fan, so I really couldn't help myself. First impressions: 1. The work is clearly an older document. It's based off of older game references and standards. 2. It's very short, a grand total of 9 pages. 3. There are several aspects to Traveller that the author doesn't address [Social Status, racial details for aliens, etc.] 4. Careers /Prior Experience 5. Age. One of the hallmarks of the Traveller game is that the characters are fully grown adults. Magical teenagers never save the universe in Traveller. Summary: This is a useful starting point to converting Call of Cthulhu into Traveller. The list of skills is handy. But it is based on older editions of CoC and Traveller both. But make no mistake, this is only a starting point. A referee using this still has a lot of work ahead of him. This isn't to say that I don't like the document. I think a lot of groundwork was laid in converting two very different systems. But it's best to look at this with reasonable expectations. You'll not be able to jump in and play immediately with this, but you'll be a lot farther down the road with it than starting from scratch.
  2. svensson
    Let me also add that what I'm hoping for is an open-world single player RPG with a deep storyline. I have visions in my head of adding clan tattoos to my character, buying spirit magic from my cult, having to quest for access to Rune magic, developing my character from a farm boy into a Rune Lord, all that stuff. I won't get it, but it's what I want to see. And I'm not encouraged by the the whole toys to life thing. Jokes aside, I see a lot of that as just a thinly disguised microtransaction designed to nickle and dime players into paying to win. If I wanted that bullshit, I'd play EA's FIFA franchise.
  3. svensson
    Well, I'm one of those freaks who is pretty picky about his games. I know what I like and I don't spend money on games that I won't like even if they're from franchises that I love. For example, I'm a huge fan of Fallout but wasn't even interested in either Fallout Shelter or Fallout '76. Strangely enough, I was even willing to give Mass Effect Andromeda a chance. I thought of it as the first book of a trilogy and was willing to see what the second 'book' had to say. If The Glorantha Game is the kind of game I'm looking for, awesome. I'll be in waiting in line with all the other preorder honks. If it isn't, then I won't be interested. But I am happy as Hell that Glorantha is finally getting the game treatment it has coming and am looking forward to eventual announcement.
  4. svensson
    Help! Does anyone out there have the old RQ2 Questworld box set? I need a pdf of the Introduction To Questworld [the folio that describes the continent of Kanos, not the adventure booklets]. I have the box set and I know I had the whole thing at one point, but I pulled the Intro out to start setting up a campaign and now I can't find the folder with the work in it. And that was at least two apartment moves ago... So if anyone is willing to scan just the Introduction folio, I'd be deeply grateful. Thanks all!
  5. svensson
    Something to look forward to after Cyberpunk 2077 [contains excitement]
  6. svensson
    I missed the announcement. I'll check the FLGS and see if they're in Bits and Mortar. For some reason I had it in my head that there would be a code included in the shrink wrap. However that might have been another company. Thanks for the answer.
  7. svensson
    A future history spanning to, say, 1650 would be good too!
  8. svensson
    Quick question. Will there be a purchase code in the shipcase edition for PDFs for those of us who'd like to support our FLGS by purchasing there? Thanks.
  9. svensson
    At my last look [day before yesterday], all three ships carrying the Slipcase Edition [RQG, GM Kit, and Bestiary] were in either in-port or in the final legs of their voyage. These ships were headed to Southampton UK, Sydney NSW, and Long Beach CA. Of these, the Long Beach vessel had the farthest to go. Expect them to be available by the end of the month [March 2019].
  10. svensson
    I'll grant you that the Guide is definitely a tome. Digging that SOB out to reference can be a chore when you're trying not to tear the dustcover, etc. As to a new edition of the same material, I'd rather prefer to get a glimpse of what Glorantha looks like after the fall of the Red Moon. I mean, what does Dragon Pass look like after Heortling culture is nearly exterminated and Orlanth only survives by the skin of his teeth? But more art, especially more GOOD art, is always welcome. Maybe a Visions of Dragon Pass book with juried and authorized art and illustrations. You know, now that I think of it, a couple of books of art that depict the scenes from the travels of Biturian Varosh and Paulus Longvale could be good.
  11. svensson
    So I want to get a game going in my local area, but I'm tired of having to buy a rule book, get read up on the world /milieu /genre enough to present the material, convince people to play, and then run into a dead end when the game dies, or it gets sold to another company that *drastically* rewrites the rules. [for example, the various iterations of Middle Earth, Star Trek, Star Wars etc.]. To solve this, I dug out my old RQ2 Questworld box set, dusted off the Kanos continent, and am putting together a transplanted Earth society on that continent. 'Just add magic' so to speak. And it's NOT a society you'd expect, either. My struggle with all this is convincing players 'raised' on leveling systems and experience points that there is an alternative that is more homogeneous and 'natural'... that they can do anything they want if they're willing to spend the time and effort, but that they'll only get better in skills they spend time and effort on. With all that, I've found that the big advantage RQG has is the long back story that players can read up on if they wish to. There's lots of illustrative art, and lots of hand waves that help a player get into their role. With Mythras/RQ6, not so much.
  12. svensson
    Are you speaking of the big 2-volume set? If so, I don't know about that... that's kind of pricey just for new art and not new content. As I understand it, the GoG was supposed to be the be-all-and-end-all of what Glorantha is and is not. If so, I thought there was a lot of new art in it. Especially art with a newer direction than previously [the artwork depicting the various peoples for example]. Maybe it was new to me or something. This isn't to say that there isn't some extraordinary art coming out lately, there absolutely is. Were I to suggest something, I would like to see some more art depict the gear of the various societies. In the RQG main rules I really enjoyed the Heortling artwork showing Farmer, Thane, Noble, Rune Lord, and Priest and I'd like to see some depictions of Esrolians, Dara Happans/Pelorians, Praxians, etc.
  13. svensson
    OK, over on the Glorantha board we almost got into political stuff. We certainly don't want a political debate in this forum. But I got to looking at the 2016 CthulhuTrump campaign stuff and I thought.... Would an image of Teresa May and Donald Trump dancing around an altar summoning Hastur be funny? Yes. Yes it would....
  14. svensson
    XIN LOS ANGELES tracks as being in Vancouver BC by tomorrow afternoon on VesselFinder. You Ozzies can try and figure that out in ANZ metric time, plus or minus DST... Since her last port of call was in the PRC, I'm presuming she's inbound for Longbeach CA.
  15. svensson
    It might be useful if we set aside the normal meanings for the words 'iron', 'bronze', 'copper' and so forth. Those words imply that that the Gloranthan metals called by those names possess properties and respond to treatment the same as Earth metals of the same name. And it is very clear from their discussion in Greg's writings and the metals' treatment in RQ that this is not the case. We know these things for sure: *Gloranthan bronze is not usually smelted from tin and copper. They are the literal Bones of the Gods that slain in the Gods War. *Many human cults know the secret of working Gloranthan iron/ Ur-metal. A smaller number know the secret of working it into steel. Orlanth, Humakt, Yelm, Yelmalio and cults within the Lunar Empire [Blue Moon, etc.] certainly do. And the Mostali don't send gobblers after all of them, so the secret of Ur-metal must not be all that very important. A Lesser Secret rather than a Greater. *Many Rune metals can be enchanted to the properties of bronze, but few to the properties of iron.
  16. svensson
    Why do I have this vision in my head of a marching phalanx getting spun around like Russian Cossack dancer
  17. svensson
    Well, let me point out that working raw iron into sharp blades isn't all that much more sophisticated than working copper. The Xhosa and Bantu peoples of Southern Africa [the Zulus are a Bantu people] were able to make assegai blades using stone anvils and hammers. There's nothing that says the Mostali don't trade blade blanks for the locals to pound into specific shape. However, I also realize that Gloranthan Ur-metal [Runic Iron] is not the same as chemical element Fe on Earth Prime. While I might bring up some Earth equivilents, the Metals of Acos are what Greg Stafford said they are, not our chemistry or shop teachers
  18. svensson
    So true. And you can say that about any franchise or genre. Sometimes you just have to let the magic be magic and the warp drive work because the author says so.
  19. svensson
    Well, the Marian legion [based on cohorts] is a much looser formation as compared to the phalanx or the Saxon/Viking shield wall. One look at the legionary scuta after Gaius Marius professionalized the legions will show you that they weren't made to overlap in battle formation until deep in the AD's [about the time they were strapping iron darts on the inside of their shields]. I suppose a Lunar legion-equivalent could use a sickle-sword of some form to stab upwards in a softball-pitch motion.... But again, I wouldn't recommend it.
  20. svensson
    Well, it's good to a firm basis for going forward. I admit that I didn't much like knights in Gothic jousting harness and Ralios covered with codottierri wearing coats of plates and carrying Florentine rapiers all while the Lunar Empire was still wearing linothorax and its 'heavy' infantry was wearing lorica segmentata.
  21. svensson
    Okay, looking up 'Greek kopis', I see the similarity. I'd seen other illustrations that looked very like a sword-axe [a' la the '300' movie]. Certainly they existed in history, but I have to admit that I never liked the visual of them. They have this ridiculous 'mall ninja' look that bothers me. But then, I fought as a heavy in the SCA for many years and I freely admit to a straight blade bias. From my experience looking over the shield rim at bad guys, there isn't a whole lot to recommend a curved blade while fighting on foot. It's true that a kopis /falcata can be a shield killer with enough *oomph* behind it, but it doesn't really lend itself to any combat style other than the overhand hack. The same goes for the Lunar sickle swords of whatever variety... especially when you imagine them a legionary type formation. Cohortal or manipular formations depended on the front ranks being able to stab underneath into the abdomen of opponents who were hacking overhand and using their shield to counterbalance the motion of the strike. But at the end of the day, this is fantasy with Gods and demons and magic that works. If Greg and Steve say that cohorts work with scimitars, so be it.
  22. svensson
    Since we're talking about swords [and I admit that I haven't read 16 pages of discussion] what about the Iberian /Carthaginian falcata? Or the classic Egyptian khopesh?
  23. svensson
    Since when did any of the RQ3 material become non-canon? And do we have a list of canon sources? BTW, I thought the Shadows on the Borderlands was a great supplement. It had my group looking over our shoulders for Thanatari scorpion-ogres for months!
  24. svensson
    In re: Passions and Illumination [which really ought to be its own thread, but nvm] Were it my table as GM, I would allow a very limited number of Passions for an Illuminate character. Like maybe one or two Passions absolutely essential to the character, its beginning concept, and its subsequent play. Arkat was an Illuminate and was able to maintain his drive to kill Gbaji... and the tales tell us that it was not in the cold, calculating manner of Oddi the Keen. When battle became personal, Arkat could get quite enraged [mechanically using his Hate Nysalor Passion]. Illumination by it's very nature is free of Passions [capital and lower-case 'p']. It is the liberation from dogma and prejudice, yes, but it is also releases the boundaries of morals and ethics that allow all societies to function. Even here on Earth Prime we struggle with the definitions of 'evil' when we have a difficulty defining what is 'murder' and what is 'killing', for just one example. Look at what happens to Illuminates when they realize that there's no consequences to even the most depraved acts. And speaking of Arkat and Argrath, that brings up another question.... Was Argrath Illuminated? [ducks]
  25. svensson
    SIDE QUESTION These stupid line-throughs keep appearing in my posts. Other than erasing the entire post and starting over, I can't seem to get the damned this to stop appearing at random intervals. Anyone have any ideas about this, or is it just me?
×
×
  • Create New...