Ian Absentia

pls pst pix pls thx !i!

Taking a moment to be serious, the primary benefit of most non-fitted, non-filtration masks (e.g., cloth or paper surgical masks, scarves, etc.) is the same as wearing a surgical mask in an operation theater -- to keep from spitting into an open cavity or exposed membrane. In other words, they help protect others from being exposed to your exhalations much more than they help protect you from others. Which is still a good thing. On other matters, you have to be a brave model to appear in one of those customised tee-shirt adverts. One has no idea what's going to appear on your chest. !i!

Historically, the stats for Whip have clearly not included a damage bonus (not including the Shock Net, a futuristic weapon seen in the BGB, which allows a +1/2db). I'm less certain of the net, but I'd not allow a damage bonus for that, either. The whip and net are finesse weapons, and STR really only comes into play when the target is struggling to become unentangled (STR vs STR). The bola includes a +1/2db because it's a weighted object that you're heaving with a certain brute force. Also, admire the damage potential of the whip. There's a reasonable chance that, following a successful hit, that it does effectively no damage; and its potential damage is very low. Contrary to the assertion that a whip (riding whip or otherwise) does no damage, they really can -- it's just not much, and it's not intended to be otherwise. It's really a tool used as an improvised weapon (c.f., pocket knife). There's a reason you don't see military units composed of whip specialists. !i!

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner! .:.Ian

I broke form and slipped into argument in the RuneQuest Core Rules Questions thread (see below) and received a reiteration of the explanation that the Whip skill mentioned in the character creation process in the RQG core rules is officially limited to driving a horse or perhaps intimidating (or distracting?) another charioteer. These are descriptions of what you might do with your Drive Chariot skill, and are no more independent skills than Maintain Balance or Handle Reins. Isn't it easier (and more sincere) to clarify that it was an editorial oversight that Whip didn't get removed from the Chariot Driver's Occupational Skills in character creation when actual rules for whips were cut? I look forward to official interpretations of existing rules for whips and bolas in future publications. !i!

Welcome to HeroQuest! !i!

I thought this would be the appropriate time to trundle out a link to my old web article, Glorantha for the Yoots, in which I detail playing HeroQuest with my then-5-year-old son. I can't locate a copy of it now, though. I didn't mention it at the time (2005), but I was playing RPGs with my very young kids largely as a result of a brief period of unemployment. The circumstances were totally pants, but the memories are priceless. Happiness is often not something you experience, it's something you remember -- I encourage everyone to cherish these moments. We went on to playing a little bit of D&D3.5 a few years later (I really have to find, scan, and share the character sheet from his totally-metal, power-gamer Dragonborn Druid with Dire Wolf companion from when he was 10), and every so often I hear rumors that he dabbles in 5e/Pathfinder now that he's 20. With all of us in the same home for the moment (including his 18-year-old sister), we're beginning to break out the board games (the ironic charm of Pandemic and Contagion wore off quickly), and I'm eyeing the old RPGs again as an alternative to dueling for bandwidth on Netflix from separate rooms. Courage and cheer, mates, !i!

I support the case for keeping super powers à la carte. Sure, on one hand you have Golden Age Superman and Silver Age Hulk who, by dint of sheer might, can effectively fly with a leap. But then you have other super-strong types like Colossus or Juggernaut whom I don't think I've ever seen depicted as being able to leap to any great effect. The basic rationale for buying powers and abilities individually, rather than deriving them from stats, is to make more comprehensive characters come at a cost. Want that super leaping ability? Find a way to pay for it against buying other powers, because it doesn't come free. That said, it's worth nothing that, in Superworld, buying your DEX up high enough effectively provided extra attacks. DEX 21 was the minimum bar for all of my characters, with an additional action being permitted on every Action Rank ending with a 1 (i.e., 1, 11, 21, 31...) independent of Super Speed, Rapidfire, or Simultaneous Attacks. It's expensive, though, so 31 was my absolute cap, reserved for only the likes of Spider-Man and such. !i!

Back to the actual matter at hand... Depends on the context. If written "in character," with similar affectations, go hog wild. For added character, I recommend replacing all lowercase "s" with "f", and all "z" with "s" -- I reckon you're already halfway there. !i!

In defense of the map, everything in the late-60s through the '70s was very Tolkein-esque. The map of Middle Earth in LotR was a gold standard for fantasy cartography. I'm pretty sure I can dig up the one of my own that I drew in 7th-8th grade. I do like the early focus on the Lunar Empire. I also love the 6-point compass rose -- that slipped my notice at first glance. !i!

Wow, that's...very Tolkein-esque. !i!

Ooh-hoo-hoooo... !i!

An allosaurus broo doubtless has large stones. If I had 'em, I'd throw 'em around, too. !i!

Is this one of those weird in-jokes that crop up in Gloranthan circles from time to time? !i!

Yes, in Wyrm's Footnotes, Issue 13, available in PDF from the Chaosium website. $2.49 US. https://www.chaosium.com/wyrms-footnotes/ !i! [Edit: Now that I've twigged to just how old the OP is, and the reason for resurrecting the thread, the forthcoming QuestWorlds SRD is for the HeroQuest 2/1/Hero Wars narrative RPG, not the original BRP 1982 game setting.]

Or a vision of the future. !i!

No re-skinning any Chaosium game, including Nephilim. !i!

Reignited from a thread in the Call of Cthulhu forum, how about street-level teen sleuths? On essentially the scale of The Shadow and The Spider, but with less imminent menace. Teen Titans, but not so titanic. For instance, instead of Nancy Drew and Joe Hardy, we have 17-year-old Barbara Gordon and a 14-year-old Bruce Wayne taking to the streets as Batgirl and Robin. Look to the first few seasons of the television show Gotham for inspiration, but add more costumery. Any of the '60s and '70s era teen sleuth cartoons can be embraced for inspiration, too, just amped up a bit (Shaggy and Scooby don't need to do so much running away). Granted, great swathes of the Superworld rules sit on the sideline, as there are essentially no "super" powers, and the rules lean heavily into skills, stunts, and gadgets. But these are things the rules model rather well. (Okay, with the possible exceptions of Gimmick and Sidekick, which have always been awkward and exploitable/unexploitable.) !i!

Nancy Drew is Barbara Gordon, a.k.a. Batgirl. Or, perhaps rather, Batgirl is Nancy Drew. More appropriate to the Superworld forum, this reminds me of my proposal for a Young Adult illustrated novella series, Batgirl and Robin, featuring a Nancy-Drew-competent 17-year-old Barbara Gordon and her 14-year-old, Richie-Rich sidekick, Bruce Wayne, who has all the best toys. !i!

Oh-hoyyy-yuh. Oh-hoyyy-yuh. Oh-hoyyy-yuh. (God damn it!) !i!

Not entirely. M.A.R. Barker developed whole languages to bring his world to life. And right there in the game books are all the different military ranks and noble title and temple grades, etc, etc. And if you as the GM use them in-game you can watch your player's eyes glaze over in (hopefully) patient forbearance. Heck, I've had the same issue when running a game of Bushido and trying to insert genuine Japanese terminology. It's all very well-meaning, but if it distances players from the game world by having to translate terms in play, it's counter-productive. In Glorantha, there are various odd tribes and races and gods and all, but at least the context is in a language the players are familiar with. Lean into the path that Professor Barker took, and Bill's right on the money -- lots of admirers, but not a lot of players. See also: Skyrealms of Jorune. !i!

Empire of the Petal Throne leaps immediately to mind. Arguably "done right," and exquisitely impenetrable to most gamers. Even moreso than Glorantha. But even EotPT leans into contemporary equivalency for shorthand. !i!

Hey, Bill... !i!

Damns if Colonial Cthulhu won't scratch an itch I have for a game of early-1700s era North American frontier exploration (with or without the Mythos) in much the same fashion that Down Darker Trails finally scratched my itch for Old West era frontier adventure (with or without the Mythos). I look forward to it. !i!

As I understood it (and it's been a long time since I leafed through the book), CthulhuTech posed a scenario where humans were essentially on the brink of becoming a servitor race themselves. With mecha, of course. !i!