Nick J.

First Impressions:

This looks like a really nice start, and as someone who has spent more than a trivial amount of time trying to hack at the BRP ruleset for Fantasy Grounds, I can tell a lot of work has gone into this. Hats off to you or the coder that worked on it. I just encountered a couple of minor bugs, but no show-stoppers -- just did a few things like play around with character creation, etc. no combat or anything major.

Another heads up. The directory structure in the PAK file is a bit of a problem. To get it working, the contents under "RevolutionD100" folder in the PAK file need to be moved to the root of the archive; i.e. move everything up one level and delete/disregard the RevolitionD100 folder.

EDIT: same goes for the MOD file with the SRD

Just a heads up, the links are kind of busted. copy and paste works ok though

11 hours ago, jagerfury said:

I'm saying even though the target is not using a parry or a dodge the attacker still has to roll to hit.

Yeah, I see what you're saying. Even if somebody is completely defenseless, it's still possible for an attacker to completely whiff and foul up. I remember plenty of snowball fights as a kid where somebody would have his back turned and another kid would come in for the "kill" and sail it a few inches past their head  

If you want to add an extra level of granularity, maybe the attacker in such a circumstance only fails on a fumble, or if they roll in the automatic failure range of 96-00? Alternatively, you could port in a rule from another d100 game. Magic World grants a +50% chance to the attack roll vs. a helpless character (asleep, bound, etc.) while it's a +25% bonus against an unaware defender (and no opportunity to dodge or parry).

FGG/Necromancer make some fine books, but you're fishing in the wrong pond.

1 hour ago, Simlasa said:

I think if I wanted something like 'feats' in Magic World I'd look to Mythras and its Combat Maneuvres... or DCC and its Mighty Deeds mechanic. I'd kind of rather avoid a menu though... just encourage trying odd things and have some consistent way to adjudicating them.

I've thought about this some myself. I think the arete system in Advanced sorcery lends itself well to some kind of "Mighty Deed of Arms" mechanic (in the spirit of DCC RPG) In practice this could be extended to the rule of 'halve your skill and try to do something cool' not specifically covered by the spot rules even for characters without combat skills in excess of 100.

Well one thing to consider is that DriveThru/RPGNow are going take their cut, which reduces the amount of money that actually ends up in Chaosium's pocket. There's also another benefit to the Chaosium PDFs; no watemark (which I hate).

I could see +10% for the attacker and -10% for the defender being a reasonable alteration, but on the other hand Cavalry was pretty devastating, particularly if you're talking about a lone defender trying to stand up to a charging horse and not a mass of pikemen.

I grew up around cattle and horses throughout most of my childhood and teenage years, I can say pretty flatly I'd never want to be on the receiving end of somebody bearing down on me with a sword or a lance while I'm on foot. Half of the -20% penalty to defense is probably from trying not to soil yourself.  

On 6/4/2017 at 3:56 AM, Trifletraxor said:

Great!

I assume a faulty URL was the reason behind your warning too Nick J., but please tell if that does not turn out to be the case. S.

Whoops, sorry I didn't reply sooner, I've been really busy and haven't visited since I reported that error. I just clicked on your link with the period following and it threw up the same error as before. I honestly don't remember if I typed in the address or used a bookmark from before, but I suspect I typed it in wrong.

Cheers

FYI, just got a Chrome warning about https://basicroleplaying.org not being a safe site. Just figured I should mention it, in case there's a problem with the site's security certificate or something.

Very nice. I'm certainly no UI/UX designer, but it "feels" pretty intuitive to navigate to the various products,and it looks good to boot.

2 hours ago, K Peterson said:

I've got a PDF of Lankhmar Unleashed and an adventure (Swords Against Sorcery) that I bought years ago but haven't looked at in a while. What else was released for Mongoose's Lankhmar line (MRQ1 or 2), and what was worthwhile?

Lankhmar and Nehwon were books that were compiled into Lankhmar Unleashed and had a couple of adventures in the back half of each book. If you already have Lankhmar Unleashed then I doubt you are missing anything; the adventures didn't exactly leave an impression and I've never run them, so I can't say if they are any good or not. Otherwise, I like the write-up on Quarmall and the rules for corruption for Black Magic are pretty good. 

5 hours ago, NickMiddleton said:

1) The addition of cultures to characters creation add atmosphere and texture - but in a fashion that doesn't complicate matters.

2) Skill categories were an option in Elric! but MW gives them some significance (by having bonuses) but without the complexity of the RQ 1/-/3, SB 1/-4 etc model.

3) Character creation, frequently a morass of decision paralysis dividing point totals out across skill lists,  is streamlined to assigning defined list of fixed BLOCKS of points, simplifying the whole process (whilst still allowing customised breakdowns if preferred.

4) Rather than fixed "impales" as theist level of success (but only for weapon attacks) and "critical" on 1/5th of skill as in Elric! Magic World reinstated the more traditional scaling of critical on 1/20th of skill and specials on 1/5th of skill. Annoyingly, this was errata that was missed before the book originally went to print - not sure if it ever got corrected in the PDF.

5) Occupation skills increase slightly faster than non-occupation skills, ensuring occupations retain some relevance without being a straightjacket.

6) Guidance on generic NPC stats - Magic World page 221

Those are the ones that spring to mind and I'm confidant of without going through the two texts closely side by side - there are a number of other "nips & tucks" that are more editorial in nature. The compiled errata is here - https://basicroleplaying.org/topic/2786-magic-world-errata-is-live/?do=findComment&comment=77861 Thanks to Big Jack Brass retrieving it from off site after the previous upload was lost.

Chaot is remembering incorrectly - as published, MW retains both statement of intent as a separate step in combat, AND divides sequencing so Magic happens in INT order and then physical actions in DEX  order, as in  Elric! And all spells takes a FULL found to come in to effect.

cheers,

Nick

 

The language about criticals and specials on page 48 was indeed corrected in the PDF revision.

I'm a sucker for Lankhmar stuff. I still own everything TSR ever made for the line, as well as the Mongoose books. And because I'm a sucker I'll be getting this too.

Having said that, I think Goodman Games makes very good adventures that usually contain a lot of material that can be easily adapted to other games besides DCC RPG. For instance, the three existing DCC Lankhmar adventures are well written and do a very good job of capturing the spirit of Lieber -- Michael Curtis seems to be very conscientious about this point, so I'm fairly optimistic they'll produce something I will like.

I haven't run a true Nehwon campaign (Just used Lankhmar in a home-brew setting years ago), but recently I spent a good deal of time pouring over my old adventures and gazetteers after re-reading all of the stories and even worked up a world map in hexographer and if I get the opportunity, I'd really enjoy running a game here with Magic World, with some of the Mongoose bits (like the corruption table) bolted on.

Speaking of Mongoose, that's funny you mention their plagiarism. I was really scratching my head when I was looking for pre-existing Nehwon maps and I saw "Carse" appear on two different versions. I thought I was losing my mind, when I could swear that Carse was part of Midkemia. Which now makes perfect sense that it could be in your homebrew version of Nehwon, but man, that is really poor form by Mongoose.

I'm a late-comer to D100 gaming, so I didn't get a copy of Elric! until a year or so after I bought Magic World. All I can say is that MW was the first d100 game I fully grokked as a life-long AD&D/D20 gamer and it is currently my game of choice.

But, after buying Elric! I agree with Chaot and Questbird that it's a superior book in terms of layout and organization. The best thing I can say about Magic World vs. Elric! is that if your eyes are going, its very large type-face is probably easier to read and the PDF of Magic World is far superior the scanned PDF I have of Elric! (both in quality and for the simple fact that I can search MW).

22 hours ago, g33k said:

Um.  Really?  I thought it was a pretty direct reply to points you had raised.  

But maybe we should agree to disagree, and drop it; or figure out our private miscommunication privately (PM me?) and not drag the thread down with that debate... 

I was making a tongue-in-cheek post that you misinterpreted as something else. So let's forget it.

1 hour ago, g33k said:

Actually, Chaosium has a LOT on their plates... in addition to RQG, there's CoC7, HQ, and more.

The Stormbringer license is simply NOT in Chaosium's hands at the moment, and any negotiations that may or may not be happening are not being discussed by Chaosium.

They can't MAKE it happen just by being insistent ...  No matter how much the fans may want them to!

If I were going to make a guess, I'd guess they have an inquiry in, which hasn't been dismissed out of hand (possibly with a request from Moorcock (or his agent) that they make no-public-discussion until the issue HAS been addressed).

 

Your post seems to be addressing a lot of points or arguments I never made.

3 hours ago, Thot said:

Hm,. such a long time and no news probably means it's not happening. A pity.

Probably, but with Chaosium squarely focused on Runequest: Glorantha, maybe it's just a matter of priorities? Hope springs eternal.

1 hour ago, grumbleskin said:

Well damn... I thought, compared to what I have seen, I was giving a pretty decent price for a NM/Excellent copy... hmmfpph d0h!

It is a fair price, given the market, but those kind of prices put it squarely in the collector market, not so much the gaming market. I snagged a mint copy two years ago for $60 and I had to think long and hard about it.

My guess is that if you put it up on an auction site like E-bay it will eventually sell, but it might take a few tries -- it's a pretty niche product.

For the Glorantha novice, what is "KAP?"

I haven't done it, but I've certainly nicked spells from other d100 sources.

There's a few ways you could do it: You can have characters make a Luck roll (POWx5). You could create a separate "casting skill" that starts at 0% and gets Knowledge category bonus (see page 97 in the Spell-casting Option sidebar), or make every spell a separate skill, or whatever else you can think up that you like and makes sense for your game/setting.

On 4/5/2017 at 7:07 AM, NickMiddleton said:

Different Nick, but I used Allegiance as the basis of Priestly miracles in Ulfland (written up for the BGB in Uncounted Worlds volume 1).

cheers,

"other" Nick

Is there a PDF copy of Uncounted Worlds that I can download somewhere? I'd like to take a look at it and mine it for ideas.

Thanks.

I did have another thought about using the Allegiance system and giving characters abilities tied to it: Should they be replacements or additions to the Allegiance benefits presented in the Magic World book? My gut tells me that in most games these special powers/abilities should be presented as mutually exclusive options.

Needs some play-testing I think.

5 minutes ago, Simlasa said:

Dance with undead? Mutual disinterest with undead? Shake hands and part as friends with undead?

Lol. Something like that.

Actually maybe Allegiance to the Balance opens up spells and powers that deal with the natural world (i.e. Beast Shape as cult power, that lasts for rounds equal to Balance points, or abilities with elementals). Allegiance to Shadow opens up diabolist powers/spells, etc. 

I'm still trying to sort it out (and this is something I'd like to get player input on in our game, instead of me just spit-balling on my own).

9 minutes ago, ReignDragonSMH said:

I had something like this in mind.

Magic World Turning Undead

 

Creature (MP)/ Alliegance	Skeleton (1)	Zombie (1)	Ghoul (2)	Ghast (2)	Wight (3)	Wraith (3)	Vampire (4)
1 to 25	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
26 to 50	T1	T	-	-	-	-	-
51 to 75	T	T	T	T	T	T	-
76 to 90	D2	D	T	T	T	T	T
91	D	D	D	D	D	D	D

MP Costs are PER creature

1. Turn is used for those who have allegiance to Light; those with allegiance to Shadow can “Control” the undead, taking temporary control.

2. Destroy is used for those who have allegiance to Light; those with allegiance to Shadow can 'Dominate' the undead, taking permanent control.

It's interesting, I think I'd lean to the more d100/BRP way of handling it with a MP:MP resistance table roll. Also what would you do with characters who are allied with Balance? I should probably open up my copy of Classic Fantasy and see if there's anything to steal from it.

Definitely something to mull over.