el_octogono

The difference is that conflict resolutions is about what you seek to obtain with your action (or "the prize"), and not the action itself. So if you fail your roll, that means you didn't get the prize, but not necessarily fail the action...

The action (or task) is "I swing my sword to behead the orc."

What do you want to get from the action may be different things depending on the narrative context:

1- I want to kill the orc. The prize is killing the orc. If you fail the roll you don't kill the orc.

2- I want to kill the orc to intimidate all the other orcs. The prize is intimidating the orcs. If you fail the roll you may fail killing the orc and intimidating the others OR you may still kill the orc but fail to intimidate the others. You may or may not complete your action but you surely don't get the prize, that which is at stake.

Hi! I noticed some users have signatures in their messages but I can't find the option anywhere.  Any clues? Thanks!

I've read almost every EC novel, except the Blood novels.

Quoting the end of Stormbringer:

The entity that was Stormbringer. last manifestation of Chaos which would remain with this new world as it grew, looked down on the corpse of Elric of Melniboné and smiled.
"Farewell, friend. I was a thousand times more evil than thou!"
And then it leapt from the Earth and went spearing upwards, its wild voice laughing mockery at the Cosmic Balance; filling the universe with its unholy joy.

 

7 hours ago, Atgxtg said:

Yes there is- Strombringer! The Lords of Chaos are also considered to be demons, so there is some overlap. There were also a couple of throwaway lines in the stories that could go either way. This was still in the Conan mold, where magic/sorcery was bad. 

5 hours ago, Joerg said:

No, he isn't. There are siblings of his, like Mournblade.

At the end, after Elric kills himself using Stormbringer, the sword gives up that shape and emerges as a demon, too.

The whole "demonic beings summoned into items" magic by Ken St. Andre was derived from that unraveling of this weapon, I think.

Stephen Brust's Jhereg saga set in Dragaera has a similar way of making a greater demon weapon, with lesser Morganti (demon) blades being a common choice for assassinating the many highly skilled immortal (unaging) sorcerers in that setting, and a small selection of greater demon weapons fighting in the greater struggle for that world.

Now that's a setting I would like to see in a similar format as Stormbringer.

OK, this could start a long debate... but the "Black Sword" is the weapon of the Eternal Champion. It varies from one incarnation to another. Elric has Stormbringer, Corum the Hand of Kwll, Erekose has Kanajana, and so on. It is an entity on its own, just as the Eternal Champion, the Eternal Companion. If that entity is demonic in nature, I've never read a reference. If we use demon as a broad term which may also include the Lords of Chaos, well, then it may be a demon... or maybe not!  YMMV

There are some magical weapons and armor, but there is no single clue as being demons. In some stories, runes are inscribed on weapons. I remember Rackhir's bow with the Rune of Law (or Justice). Stormbringer is "the Black Sword" an entity of its own in the Multiverse realm.

I agree, the old Stormbringer had a nice balance of rules complexity. However, at some point the game was broken, specially when you began getting a lot of demon objects and weapons. There was also a bit of disconnection with the novels with Virtues, too much overpowered Chaos over Law, the false dichotomy of Chaos=Magic and Law=Technology, and then some types of magic missing. Some of this things were addressed in Elric! which was IMO the best streamlined and concise rules I ever read, but overall the game felt less fun. I finally made my own Elric RPG which I am pretty proud of. I hope Chaosium will release someday a game with the Elric/Magic World rules.

I always play in an alternate Young Kingdoms... around the Sadric era... or even in Elric era, but the end of the world is never happening as written. I like my players feeling their PCs are the main characters. Playing overshadowed by Elric and the written events is not that fun. And, as posted above, the Multiverse is open to many, many different timelines....

On 10/4/2018 at 10:24 AM, Atgxtg said:

Bumping hit locations by delaying Strike Ranks seems a bit better, but makes it all about speed and not about skill. 

 

Maybe bumping hit locations depending on your skill level... You still roll for hit location but you can move to an adjacent hit location for every... full 20% of skill?

Say you have 63% in Broadsword... you want to aim for the head. You hit and roll for location and get Chest as result. You have to move 3 slots up the table, or 60% minimum. So the attack hits the Head. This also makes easier to hit the chest and abdomen which is a very logical thing.

Hi all! I have a lame question... I've never been into Glorantha but this new RQ edition may be of interest to me. The thing is, there are a lot of Glorantha books out there and I'd like to know if this new release will be enough to roleplay and explore the world or other setting books will be needed. Thanks!

I always liked Nephilim but it had some major issues. Mainly the absence of a "What the game is suposed to be about". List of other big problems IMO:

- Not enough explanation of the Major Arcana and how it should influence the PCs.
- No explanation of how to connect the nature of an elemental Nephilim with the chosen Major Arcana. Some combinations were incongruent or directly unplayable
- No explanation about the Nephilim world... do they connect with each other regularily? Does anyone knows when a Nephilim awakens? Is there a catalog of suspended and awake Nephilims? How about the simulacra life?
- Can you have a Nephilim "party"? how do they meet? should they be all from the same Arcana? if not how do they interact with each other?
- Nephilim advancement is pretty much divorced from what it is supposedly enlightning.
- Very few spells, and very limited in aplication.

Understanding how the game is supposed to be run is a path to enlightment in itself!!

I feel the game was more complicated than it should.

18 hours ago, Marcus Bone said:

• The Allegiance System has never been a happy one for me - it never really reflected Fate or being agents of the Balance (which in my mind all characters are). I'm leaning towards a system that rewards the characters for staying close to the Balance.

 

I agree the allegiance rules are not quite right. I think they lack relevance. There is no real consecuence in having or rising allegiance points save for the small bonuses in MPs and skills, and when becoming a champion. In my own system I tied a sort of allegiance to chaotic and lawful features. A PC may call for aid but risks a chance of acquiring some chaotic or lawful trait. So that puts the players in a position where they stay true to the balance or be tempted by the "easier and more powerful" forces but take the risk of consecuences.

Another thing I'd like is changing the concept of Chaos=magic, Law=science. It is never like that in the novels, and there are numerous examples of Lawful characters and champions using magic, and chaotic beings using tech-like artifacts. I believe magic and technology is just a tool. However a more chaotic environment would lead to superstition and magic, whereas a lawful plane would encourage logical thinking, methodic aproaches, science, etc.

How about RuneQuest: Basics

I once did a houserule variant where you could attack any number of consecutive times, but with a cumulative penalty. If you missed, the initiative goes to your enemy. Penalty also applied to parries, so if  you where fighting more than one enemy you had to make a tactical stop to regain your %. This way you could attack any number of times against any number of enemies, without major hassle.

Something similar happened with ranged combat.

I wonder if Chaosium would be willing to use another system for the return of Stormbringer... I have some nice rules in my hard drive

On 8/1/2017 at 6:04 PM, Luis Dantas said:

Thanks.  This little project has certainly turned informative!

Octogono, may you give any info on how Aquelarre relates to D100 in general and the BRP/RuneQuest systems specifically?

Aquelarre is from 1990 and it is a derivative of the RQ system, probably the AH RQ3 edition which was the first, and most important edition in spanish. It is set in a dark mythic Iberic peninsula (Spain and Portugal) where demons walk around, curses and diseases spread. It uses real world cultures and religions of the region (Catholic, Jewish, Moorish, etc) and real religion references for demons, angels and magic. It had a Luck stat that works the same way CoC7 does. Combat uses 1d10+Dex for initiative, uses a modified hit location method using the units die, which is really much faster than throwing an additional d20, hit points for armor, and other rules I can't remember. Finally there is a dual stat: Rationality/Irrationality, that measures PCs belief in the supernatural, and also how much magic you can do, and have effect on you. The current edition is the third, published in 2011.

Also the spanish game Aquelarre.

I would add one or two penalty dice. I think they are useful for a fast and safe way to manage these situations. 

5 hours ago, rsanford said:

So what does a session leader do? Is that just means he leads the grip that session? From your description I suspect he does more than that... Do you have these rules written down anywhere? Can you share :-)

The session leader suggests a course of action, based on previous game information or whatever the player, or all of them, come up with. Every PC finds motives to join the leader in his quest, to acquire something useful for their own Destinies or just to give company. You can download the current version of the game, completely playable, including sailing and mass combats, but it is available only in spanish, at the moment. From here: Lobo Blanco

5 hours ago, rsanford said:

Sorry one more question. If the session leader follows his destiny do you find the players continue with the plot clues laid out for them or do you assume a sandbox where there is no specific plot...

I assume a sandbox approach although, as I mentioned before, PCs actions generate repercussions that the GM elaborates both narratively and mechanically. So, after some sessions, PCs may have to confront the consequences of their previous actions, in fact, confronting these repercussions let the characters grow. This way, players feel a very dynamic and alive setting that reacts to them, which I think is pretty close to the experiences of the characters in MM's novels.

If you want more info on Lobo Blanco I suggest creating a sub-thread in "other games". I'll be glad to talk about it.

I had a year long campaign of playtest. Destinies worked pretty well. They are deep desires or goals that drive the characters to act. Basically you ask the player what would his character do to get closer to his destiny. For example, one player had the Destiny "Become the most famous thief in the world", so whenever he led the session he tried to find valuable or important things to steal, or investigate for maps or related information. He also had in mind a final act which was stealing the Ruby Throne of Melniboné. At first, the notion of a session leader was cautiously received, but after the first session, almost everyone was eager to lead. It is worth noting that the other players may suggest or find reasons related to their own Destinies to accompany the leader, much like Elric joining Sharilla in her quest for the Dead God's Book, or Avan Astran in his travel to R'lin K'ren A'a.

13 hours ago, tzunder said:

Part of me would love this.

But a greater part would prefer a non BRP game, something which approaches the issues of Doom, Law/Chaos, Dream, Trust, Betrayal in a different way.

 

Well, after years of slightly different Elric games I grew tired and decided to create my own Moorcock themed rpg. It is fan made (of course) and it is called Lobo Blanco (White Wolf in spanish). It is not BRP because I wanted to create a game that tries to recreate the feeling of the Elric, and other Eternal Champion novels. The game can be broadly described as "narrative sandbox". Player Characters have a Destiny, both motivation and ultimate goal, that drives their actions. Each session a PC or the GM is designated leader of the adventure and elaborates some quest using his Destiny as motive. Important or key player actions create repercussions that puts the world in motion. The PCs grow by following their Destinies and creating repercussions, creating a more and more turbulent world. PCs have sworn enemies and allies that can help. Chaos and Law try to tempt the PCs but with risky consecuences... that can be avoided by betraying allies... The campaign ends with PCs retiring, achieving their destinies (very rare), dying or playing till the end of the world.

One houserule could be that no communication skill can be effectively used with a skill higher than CHAx7. So a character with a Cha 8 cannot use his Fast Talk above 56%, even if he has a higher percent.

Rulebook says parry with weapon or shield. I would only allow fist parries against other fists, or natural weapons.

As a player I like hit locations but as a GM not so much. I can't create creatures on the fly without looking for a hit location chart that goes with the creature form. Stormbringer 4th was the first game I GMed and creating creatures and demons as you go was almost a necesity. It is all a matter of preferences but I dislike when I have to cut the flow of the game, story or climax to look for a specific rule, specially when it is not a really important one.

Elric! And I guess Magic World for me

How about exchange? I use it for one of my games for combat, meaning a series of undefined attack, parries, maneouvers, etc.