Sorloc

Or can you have a poll just to have a poll?

Yeah, bad analogy.

Here's a better one:

Superman vs Mighty Mouse.

Looking at the cover for RQ2 gives me shivers. Guess I am a nerd.

As for the cover - the arrow is glowing...

And that damned comma is still there! "A Complete Core Rulebook" is correct English; "A Complete, Core Rulebook" is not.

I'm so picky... but I do know how important appearances can be.

I'm looking forward to seeing this if it goes back to the original source material and gets away from the re-warmed-over-twice-distilled Tolkien-via-D&D that pollutes the fantasy game (and literature) market.

Aaah, urinate on Tolkien. You'd think he invented the pencil, for Pete's sake. I've read the books, I've seen the movies. Repeatedly.

I like Feist's Riftwar Saga MUCH better.

I like anything by James Clavell better (political intrigue).

I like Robin Hobb's Farseer books better.

I even like C. S. Lewis better, even if his allegory gets a trifle thick at times.

Tolkien is so overrated.

My character Lugger, a INT 8 trollkin with a common sense skill of 40%, was exploring Fjallhallenberg Castle with Gavlin, a dwarf who had saved his life on numerous occations before (with DIs on a couple of occations too).

During a relatively easy fight, Lugger fumbles and hits nearest friend for critical damage. With his shortsword with Firesword Deluxe cast on it, he choppes off the top of Gavlin's head.

Horrified, glues Gavlin's head back on, and DI to Zorak Zoran to resurrect him (failing his common sense roll). Gavlin's wakes up, but seems a bit brain damaged - and Lugger have to tell him what to do in the start. When the other members in the group wanted to take Gavlin's stuff (he was carrrying Iron ringmail and plate, Mostal's spare axe, and extreme amounts of matrixes, crystals and other magic), Lugger had to tell him to kill anyone who tried to steal from him. After some weeks of having to be told what to, he seemed to be back to normal.

His player was pissed as h*ll!

Gavlin Grudgemaker, an automated Zorani Zombie with an extensive set of embedded commands, is currently the innkeeper of Alastor's Skull Inn in the Big Rubble.

That rocks.

Glorantha has creatures so badass that their dreams are badass!

Uz would take turns riding Cthulhu to see who could stay on longest.

Dave (just Dave) and some supporting cast are tracking missing villagers who were last seen gathering food.

They find the villagers, and a cliff toad.

The cliff toad chooses that moment to snap up a pretty girl.

Dave drops his sword and shield (!) and charges the cliff toad barehanded.

Dave dives into the creature's mouth to rescue the girl.

Dave spends a few weeks healing from this attempt, but the grateful villagers see to his every need while he's recuperating.

From that moment on, Dave can be counted upon to do the most heroic thing possible in every situation.

One of the things that drew people to Glorantha was the rich depth of the setting. One of the things that detered new people from getting into Gloranthan stuff was the rich depth of the setting.

Let's give BRP a fresh start by keeping it's past incarnations suitably separated from the new release.

Having to wade through a metric tonne of Gloranthan jargon to understand a post/get the joke may be a deterence to new posters.

I say that the past needs to be remembered- but it should not overshadow the present. A separate forum would be welcomed by me.

Joseph Paul

Um, you're arguing the wrong point here...

If there is a separate forum for Glorantha, you can simply not click on that forum title, and you won't be bothered by it.

If there is not, you will have people mentioning it in the common area, and then you will have to, as you put it, "wade through" it.

Me personally, I could not care less about Greg's latest, but I do like the Glorantha setting, always have, especially for the deities and the stories.

Q: What do you call 3 Humakti standing in the middle of a road with swords drawn?

A: An ambush.

Tai Kora Tek gets displeased at those who meddle in her realm...

OK, to completely hijack the thread .....

...But, this is a BRP forum not a HeroQuest forum, so apologies about the threadjack.

Maybe it should be.

The main page has but one lonely forum, Basic RolePlaying. It seemed... well, I don't know why one would have a list of forums only 1 item long, but...

Perhaps in addition to BRP, there should also be forums on the main page for HQ and RQ / Glorantha?

Is Moon Design Publications still in business? They did a pretty good job on RQ material in the past, while it was lying bleeding and abandoned in a ditch.

... and MRQ might work as a stepping board from D&D to BRP...

Nope, sorry, probably won't. I would wish for the same thing, but I sincerely doubt it, and my reasoning is twofold:

1) ICE thought the same thing when they released HARP, that it was kind of 'between' dnd and RoleMaster, and might entice dnd purchasers / players over to HARP, and then possibly to RM. It seems that it has done less of that than it has caused a schism between RoleMaster players; some prefer RM, some prefer HARP, but it does not seem (to me, an outsider, but someone who has spent a LOT of time in the ICE forums) to have brought many curious dnd-ers.

why?

2) They don't want to change.

Let's face it; if dnd players were at all interested in playing a better system, they wouldn't be playing dnd any more. It's one of the worst systems I've ever played - and with 3.5, make it THE worst (but that's probably because my friends warned me away from Castle Perilous).

Every time the subject of dnd's inferiority comes up, on any forum, the defenders all say how simple it is - which is blatantly false, it's simplistic, not simple; complicated yet not complex. It's All F'ed Up.

Many dnd players will concede various points about the system, even admitting that they've 'House Ruled' the game into near-unrecognizability, but they always say, "yes, but..."

With dnd about to become a pen&paper video game :confused: , the potential may exist to market to newbies, heading off dnd, but I wouldn't count on it, as video games start before books now.

As with anything else, if done right, it can be pretty neat.

Sliders (TV, 1995-2000) was a good example of plane-hopping done well.

Quantum Leap (TV, 1989-1993) was a good example of time travel done well.

Final Countdown (1980) was another good time travel story.

At least, I hope I'm right, as I just started a time travel game...

That sounds pretty cool. I'll definitely be watching for it.

I couldn't keep up with it. I was involved for a while, but just couldn't wade through all the crap - and now, I am so glad I didn't. It would be like watching a pet get tortured to sit and watch them destroy one of my favorite games.

p.s.: if you've actually had a pet get tortured, I apologize for using that particular metaphor.

We borrowed a page from Champions... My Path of Immanent Mastery character, Umeko, was doing 2d6+1d4 damage from Martial kicks... Average damage, 9.5. Average human has 4 HP in the head, 6 in chest...

So... we ruled that natural weapons attacks like fist, kick, grapple, bash did 'stunning' damage. 1 HP per die was 'real' damage, the rest just 'bashing' damage; it would fade rapidly (1 HP/MR). Max damage in an area would render it unusable until the damage disipated. However, if you took max HP in the head, you're KO'd. IRL, people get KO'd from blows to the head that do not necessarily kill them. This system allows a person to get KO'd by a punch to the back of the head, then wake up later having only taken 1 or 2 HP.

Nope, I'm going to weigh in on this one also...

I own both Pendragon and the game that kept Pendragon from EVER getting any play around our group - Chivalry & Sorcery.

FGU (Fantasy Games Unlimited) was the Mohammad Ali of game companies. They put out soe seriously kickass games.

Wild West, Bushido, Aftermath, Flashing Blades, Privateers & Gentlemen, Space Opera, and Villains & Vigilantes (proof that not even Babe Ruth can hit them out of the park every time).

Atlas Games owns C&S now, and it's as good as it ever was. The skill system is wicked hard to get a grasp on, but it works. My favorite part about the system is it treats missile attacks correctly - the damage is based on the projectile (arrow, bolt, dart, bullet, etc.) and the RANGE is based on the delivery system (shortbow, longbow, composite bow, pistol, rifle, etc.) If you're at less than maximum range, you do get a bonus to damage, so higher-powered delivery systems will do slightly more damage at close range than lower powered delivery systems with the same projectile.

I always hold up RQ's combat system as one of the best I've ever played, but C&S got it right with missile weapons.

Adventures so often suck. They're incredibly linear, they make assumptions about your play style, and are all too often poorly thought out.

So you make assumptions about them, and all you can go by is what's written on the back cover, which may not accurately reflect what's inside.

Quite often, people want something new they can use in their game, like new equipment, or new spells or something. But, you can't do that because of potential power creep, and cmopatibility.

The best things I've seen are Campaign books, usually centered around a certain area / culture containing some adventures, some plot hooks, a bunch of NPCs, and lots of detail about the peoples and area.

Some of my favorites are:

League of Merchants for SpaceMaster

Norek for Shadow World

the Emer series for Shadow World

Pavis and Big Rubble for RQ / Glorantha

Sun County for RQ / Glorantha

*IF* you can get one of these out, then you can do small pamphlet-sized advernture modules in those areas, but one-shots out in the wilderness...

It is interesting to me that several of you put emphasis on the experience check system. In my homebrew I did away with that and used an 'increase for experience point cost' system like Fifth Cycle. The SIZ stat has always been a sort of mixed blessing to me, as well. Unless there is some houserule to control it (like the use of a default value) it can result in very strange characters from time to time. Midget warriors, Herculean wizards, etc.

BRP:

¤ d100

¤ SIZ stat (that integrates with armor, encumberance, damage, knockback...)

¤ experience check system

¤ forces roleplaying to develop characters

¤ hit points based on stats, no power creep

¤ armor absorbs damage

¤ shields are weapons too - parry with anything

¤ no levels

¤ no classes

¤ impales, knockback, attacking a weapon, long reach weapons, area effect weapons and attacks, Strike Ranks, in & out damage, lots of small wounds can take you out, the whole combat system is the best I've ever used.

RE: above:

What's wrong with midget warriors? Do midget societies have to hire warriors from other races? What's wrong with big wizards? The growth gland impedes magic or something?

As to the experience system, There is already a system in place to gain skills you did not use recently. It's called roleplaying. What you do is this: IN CHARACTER, you look for someone who can teach the skill or spell you want to learn or improve. You convince them to teach you. You train with your teacher for a certain amount of time (yes, IN-GAME), and then, >pouf< you now have some more ability in that skill.

I'm sorry if I sound nasty, please assume I used whatever combination of smileys are necessary for you to accept that I'm not trying to belittle or degrade you personally, it's just that I have heard this a lot, and I don't get it. I actually have instituted RQ3 experience into my Rolemaster game - you can't put points into swimming if you've never learned (you don't just suddenly know how to swim just because you killed a beholder), nor can you gain ANY spell, *without a teacher*.

http://www.glorantha.com/library/index_old.html

http://www.glorantha.com/new/index.html

http://www.glorantha.com/library/prosopaedia/index.html

(This last one is very useful, and almost impossible to find from the main site. I believe all the links to it have been removed; I linked it in my Favorites, that's how I find it)

I actually never liked the spirit/divine split much anyway, but maybe it will be handled through the options side-bars? It was such an integral part of RQ I can't believe it won't be present in some form.

I did.

I liked it a lot, and it's one of my favorite parts of the Rolemaster magic system - Channeling (magic from a supernatural source), Essence (magic from life force all around), and Mentalism (magic from the power of your mind / will / spirit)

I even liked the Sorcery system, but I know a lot of people had trouble with it. I saw it as kind of like the Champions! system - it was *different* - a different paradigm - you had to learn to see things differently (e.g. a car isn't a *car*, it's an Obvious, Accessable Focus allowing Running +24", Environmental control, Extended Hearing (Radio), Force Wall PD 8, ED 4, etc...)

Once you 'got it', it was easy, and made sense... RQIII Sorcery was like that. You had a base effect, and you chose the parameters of it as you cast it. Interestingly, Iron Crown (I.C.E.) stole the system (apparantly unknowingly) and used it in HARP.

Oh, I'm not saying I got it right away... it did take years (not of continuous effort, of course)... really, I guess it just took actually trying to play a Sorcerer for a while, along with the experience of Champions and Ars Magica (building effects from components).

<snip>. It'd be nice if they could cut a deal with Sandy Peterson and use his revised Shaman and Sorcery rules as I thought they were an improvement on the ones in the book.

That sounds familiar... like some long lost arcane knowledge...

Can you help me out with a few more details?

Hm. now there's an idea...

I don't actually have a presence at the closest game store (not intereseted in dnd or CCG, so they've got very little to interest me), but if I can get them to host the game, and I run it... or better yet, my wife runs it (she will get people in the door, even if they're then too intimidated to sit at the table "huh, huh... it's a ... a *girl*... <pant> ...with boobies and everything...")

Oh, yeah, I can be harsh on my peers...

There's a rogue comma on the cover that needs to be annihilated.

Let's look at the shelf...

Pavis & Big Rubble

Strangers in Prax

Snake Pipe Hollow

Sun County

Borderlands

Duck Pond

heh...