Ian Absentia

If your opinion is that they were at least passable, that's not it. A hint: It was not a RQ/HQ project. But it sure wanted to be. Desperately. !i!

In all the years that I've owned Tollpak (the original RQ2 edition) I've used it to play a troll character exactly once (but it was Alecks Gruntfartt while my friend played his brother Oddo -- twin Great Trolls, which technically classified them trollkin) and it was divine. Most importantly, the supplement forever changed how I viewed non-human species in RuneQuest, and maybe every other game I played. No more nameless, faceless hordes -- real creatures with a reason to be. Other publications for other games have trod this ground in the years since*, but none as well and as poignantly as Sandy's Trollpak. !i! [*At least one of which was a barefaced and grossly inferior copy. And I don't mean the later AH RQ3 materials.]

Again, from a contemporary standpoint, the UN might take exception to your definition. https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/ethnic-cleansing.shtml I genuinely worry, even in roleplaying games, when we mitigate real concepts by redefining them. And again, a topic for another time and another place. All the best, really. !i!

Does it, though? A very explosive topic for another day in another place. Except how we're invited to view Argrath's allies through that very contemporary lens again. !i!

At the heart of the premise of the OP is the sense of immediacy of Argrath's actions and the ripples that radiate outward from him. In an historical or legendary context, we'd read about eye-for-an-eye or putting the defeated enemy to the sword, and we'd go "Yep, that's how it was done in those days." But in the context of a roleplaying game, we're invited to participate in that history, and when viewed from a contemporary standpoint, we all go, "Shit, that's a war crime." So it was okay to read about Argrath from a mythic standpoint in King of Sartar and various apocrypha, even when we were critical of his actions. It was always something that was going to happen...someday. But it's a different kettle of fish to be asked tp participate in that narrative. !i! P.S. To be clear... ...coercing a population to flee from from occupied territory is still considered "ethnic cleansing" and a war crime. And no, I won't stop beating that drum.

We are all funny-looking apes poised to touch the Monolith. The perfect solids aren't just dice, they're a code. Why do you suppose we enjoy playing "games" so much? !I!

I think it has something to do with the intersection between color theory and Euclidean geometry/Platonic solids. Mix some genetic memory in there for good measure. !i!

Second ed. CoC here, though I'm uncertain if it was first or later printing. Ditto on the dice colors, though -- mine were different from those shown, but clearly the same manufacturer. Good quality dice that I use to this day. None of that cheap, chippy, resinous stuff that turned up in certain other companies' boxes. I've long appreciated how dice in my old Chaosium boxes came in contemporary interior design colors. At least my Superworld dice did, all mauve and seafoam. !i!

As noted by MOB up-thread, Chris Spivey's sci-fi project has moved out of the Chaosium stable. Chaosium is shifting resources onto Lords of the Middle Sea, which is more post-apoc than sci-fi. Updates? Not sure. !i!

I think the point is that many readers are finding the emerging depiction of Argrath unsettling. There's a disconnect between how he's being revealed in print, including the negatives, and how he's received in the historical narrative. We're seeing events taking place behind the curtain, as it were. !I!

As my mother would tut-tut me in my youth, "I imply, you infer." Plenty of blame to go around. 🙂 Or, to be fair, simply react. Argrath, as an agent of world-spanning paradigm shift is proving to be a very polarising character. Are we surprised by this? As readers? As writers? After several decades of assuming him to be a hero and redeemer, yeah, finally watching the sausage being made is jarring. !I!

Matching vector (and denying it) is going to be a highly predictive affair, something like fencing, I imagine. !i!

Or if matching ship speed and vector. Maneuver the two ships to the point where they're stationary relative to one another and blast away. Of course, sauce for the goose...so match, fire, and disengage as quickly as possible. I was just cursing how much Noble Knight was charging for a copy of Mayday, but then I discovered that DriveThruRPG is selling a PDF version of the game for $19.99. !i!

5) Effects on crew from acceleration/deceleration need to be accounted for (even if hand-waved with shipboard artificial gravity). 6) Potential effects of momentum on ship-to-ship weapons. Light-speed weapons (i.e., lasers) may not be practically affected by movement, but projectile weapons (missiles, cannon, rail-guns, etc.) will be. Aw, now you have me all nostalgic for Mayday and Triplanetary! !i!

One of my mother's favorite films, foisted it off on me repeatedly during my youth. I reckon it left the same impression on me -- a privileged class squabbling over their spoils. In retrospect, I have to wonder if mother was trying to tell me something. Back to the OP, the Mythras options will give you a grittier outlook on the genre, KAP will provide a more polished perspective. Now, if you go back to the 4th Ed KAP, you'll find more blurring of gritty with polish, if that's what you're looking for. Also, the Personality Traits from KAP are totally portable to Mythras -- Passions are already there. Beware how Trait bonuses may skew power balance in play, though. !I!

And yet you masticate them one after another and blend them in your stomach, and they sustain you to be the champion that you are. I reject your analogy and challenge you to drink that brown-grey goo, and go forth and conquer. Also, I challenge you to watch a season or two of Doctor Who -- any era -- and get back to me. Lots of delicious brown-grey, garlic-chocolate goo to be had there. !i!

Why stop at only one? !i!

Dude, Paint Your Wagon. Clint Eastwood! !i!

True. As seen here and there in RQG, rules from different iterations of BRP -- even branching BRP-derived rulesets -- may be generally compatible, but not freely interchangeable without reworking the outcomes. The rules in the BGB have had significant effort to sand down the joints and fill the gaps to make a seamless collection of rules. Sometimes the distinct character suffers as a result. With regard to bleeding, I'm not so sure we should discount the body's ability to control it's own blood loss by limiting the number of Stamina rolls. I think if a character pauses activity to rest and recuperate, additional rolls should be allowed. On the move, though, or certainly if in a fight, then opportunities for wounds to staunch should be reduced to next to nil. !i!

Someday I'm going to have to chronicle the adventures across the Spinward Marches of Sirs Claudius Greystoke and Victor Harahami, Basic Mix, and Firgn Ghaghrhakh in the sleek interstellar yacht The Phalange. !i!

My players leaned heavily into Douglas Adams rather than Niven or Poul Anderson, and I was on a deep dive into Robert Anton Wilson, so I wouldn't characterise it as a hard-science love-fest. Crazy fun, though. !i!

No, more like this: https://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Hiver https://images.app.goo.gl/dFjRsYcfim5UGqt27 !i!

Finally. The Avatar: the Last Airbender theatrical release we've been waiting for. !i!

Which leads us to the infamous Hivers from Traveller. A not-so-veiled allusion to the Puppeteers. Never could let a player run one as a PC without derailing the action. !i!

Silly, silly man. Epic, mythic conflict has little or nothing to do with economics and logistics. Clearly. That business is for boardgamers and grognards. !i!