Tywyll

Other than Sandy's Mysticism rules and the RQ6 rules for Mysticism, were there any other variations on mysticism published?

I always assumed failing to pay your tithes resulted in visits from Spirits of Reprisal, so clearly if you aren't being hounded by a demon, you must have filled out your tax forms correctly!

Don't have the product.

In addition, I was planning on giving Sorcerers the powers of a Shaman from RQG. I don't like Shaman as concepts in RQ, but I like their mechanics. So swap sorcery (BRP/Elric style) for Spirit Magic and Fetches become demons).

So I was thinking of adding Elric/Magic World demon summoning to my current Crucible of Dragons (OpenQuest) game which primarily uses RQ4/RQG/RQ2 as the rule set. So I want it to be cool and powerful but not too imbalanced. Some thoughts- A lesser demon weapon/armor cannot add more damage/protection than the base item could do. If your weapon does d8, the demon form cannot do more than 2d8. Meanwhile, if you have 5 point armor suit, your demon version cannot be more than 10 (since I don't use random armor, the armor trait grants a +1 armor per level/mp spent). Greater Demons can break this rule, but each 2 steps they increase requires they have an additional 1d8 POW. So a Greater Demon with 5d8 Pow could be bound as a weapon that went 4 steps above the weapon's base die. Damage that penetrates a demon armor's AV inflicts damage to the demon's Con first. As normal, demons without regeneration cannot be 'healed' or 'repaired' on the mortal plane. Crits that ignore armor inflict damage straight to the demon's Con. (I'm debating if demon armor is immune to normal weapons and can only be harmed by enchanted or Bladesharp boosted weapons). Demon Armor and weapons can be further augmented by buffing spells as normal. Binding to a demon weapon/armor require a POWvsPOW struggle by the would be new user (not the binder) to control. Success costs 1 POW, failure means the weapon always fumbles and the armor simply cannot be put on. Each bound demon the character possesses reduces their Rune Points by 1, permanently (not max, just current). Gods loathe demons, except certain Chaotic/Evil ones. How does this sound?

Does she receive a noble's pay check though? Like, does the cult shower her with goods and wealth (that she then tithes back)? Is she supposed to work land and go kill Chaos (or whatever Cult duty she might have)? I always though Rune Lords were more free agents, typical adventureers in type, except when the cult called them in.

I'd argue that most Runelords seem to be free agents, coming and going where they are needed. Granted they may take a mission from a Priest but they are just as likely to muck in where they think they are needed. I think one version of RQ actually said that their time wasn't proscribed as other cult levels but when called they had to do what the cult needed. Yes, per various versions of RQ, Rune Lords absolutely own things on their own.

That's kinda my take too. WAaaay back in RQ2 it says 'any magic items you cannot personally use' had to be turned over, so that at least spelt it out clearly. It also uses the word income, not spoils and such. Which makes me wonder if what it's really referring to is when you train other cult members and the pay you'd get from that and teaching spells. If that was what they originally meant for you to return.

Many you value POW really cheaply! I doubt any PC would gladly hand over a POW sacrifice for an NPC at that price! RQ4 (the unpublished one) put POW at 1000-2000 L per point, based on how much skill was also involved. Always an interesting development!

That makes sense but what is the occupational income of a Rune Lord?

So you do have to give them over? How do you value them? Also, what happens when mixed runelords journey? How do they split treasure?

Do Rune Priests and Lords have to tithe magic items they find? If so, how is value determined? RQ4 is the only version I know of that actually broke down the value of magic items (though Plunder had crazy values for items), If you are, how do rune levels ever get to keep items they find? Do items you enchant yourself also count for tithing?

Ah, okay... but if you had to, what do you think you would do? For the healing I would say that Heal X would heal X points. That's easy enough. Still not sure about the attack spells, Crit spells (possibly Pow v Pow, damage that ignores armor...maybe 1d3 per letter grade?).

I actually have physical copies of both GoL and GoC! I missed using your Allegiance as MP... that's cool. I don't recall GoL having much in it though (for magic I mean, it had lots of awesome otherwise and didn't it have mook rules?).

I know this is Thread Necromancy of the highest order...but any idea what happened to the file you were referencing? Anyway I could get a copy if you still have one?

So you can attempt any spell as soon as you have the skill? Do Channelers and Mentalists actually use spell list skills? How did you do spells that inflict crits? Like a spell to make a weapon do a flaming crit of equal severity? Awesome Darn. Okay, I'll check my copy. Edit-Upon checking, there are only guidelines for converting RQ monsters into RM ones. There is no guidance on what to do with their damage. So what would you do for a shock bolt? Fire bolt? Fire Ball? Do you just let Heal X Heal that many HP (because clearly the 1d10, 3d10, etc is out of whack for BRP). Ah, so did you ditch the idea of 'class lists'? Like could a Essence user learn any Essence list (Magician, DAbbler, etc). Oh, and how did you handle Hybrid and Semi-spell users? Okay. It's a system that has awesome character creation but where combat can be interminally slow (unless you luck out and get a fatal or incapacitating crit).

That's a huge bummer. Has there ever been any english translations of DoD?

Thread Necromancy is go! My god this stuff is beautiful. Did any of it ever get translated into English?

Dug it up and saw what you meant. I had totally forgotten about Chaotic Melds (probably because they never struck me as that usable in play...1d8 rounds to prepare a spell that might only last a few rounds as well). However, it has some interesting ideas. Thanks for reminding me. If you put in some sort of method of attuning to melds (so they could be cast freely) AND kept the summoning melds you would end up with a nice Ars Magica divide of Rotes and Spontaneous Magic. Maybe you could learn a Meld by sacrificing a POW, probably make the spells not instant but instead take 1 SR per MP. Also have to standardise the duration somehow.

Thanks for sharing that! I'm extremely interested in your Spell Law conversion. Some questions though- 1) Learning Spells-What breakpoint are spells picked up in your system? 1 every 5% I assume? 2) How do Channelers and Mentalists learn spells if they aren't linked to a skill? 3) Please oh please tell me you have some notes on converting specific spells to BRP! 4) Did you use bonuses and penalties straight? I.e. if a SL spell gave you a +10 that was a +10% in BRP? 5) How did you handle damage spells? 6) How did you handle spells that inflict X Crit instead of damage? 7) Was their any mechanic governing difficulty in learning the different spell lists? For example, were Open Lists easier to learn/advance faster than Closed lists? 😎 While I balk at the straight 1 to 1 PP, that actually fits RM2 for average casters (at least beginning characters who probably only get 1 PP per level). Did you convert things like Spell Multipliers and Daily devices? I have a lot of love for RM...even if the system is terribly slow and clunky and I would probably never run it again. Still, the character options and magic system was always a bright spot for me.

I'll admit that I have zero familiarity with Harn other than it being the big weird simulationist game on the block. It was always too expensive for what it was for me to really investigate it. And god, the PDFs are so expensive. But if you can point me at the bare minimum I would need to grok it I might give it a go. I would LOVE to see your house rules... 😍

Is that the third party Corum or was there one from Mongoose? I have (had?) a copy of that but haven't seen it in ages. I remember it has a sort of a variation on Virtues from Stormbringer but I don't recall the other stuff you mentioned. Thanks for reminding me!

Ah right, the old Cult Powers from Elric Mongoose. Got it. Ah okay, that's cool. Thanks!

Wasn't Advanced Sorcery just rehashing the magic from Elric (like the stuff from Bronze Grimoire)? I like the Eastern Magic ideas, but it is so vague I think it would take a lot of work to sell it and run it with players. I will check out the file in the Download section that has a more advanced version of it.

Gifts and Blessings? How do those work? Thats an interesting idea. Why not? Does Mythras reduce potential AP dramatically? I know the attack spells are very low damage out put. Though admittedly fireball is armor piercing and I think Lightning ignores metal armor?