Ian Absentia

True, which is why I didn't state as much. But they scale well in terms of the level of essential detail. To emphasise what I wrote... Emphasis on "abbreviated." It's not a 1-to-1 correspondence, and it's an interpretive process, but you can bang out the basic skills, passions, and affinities. Armor and weapons are more or less standard. No, it's not a template process, but it's a fraction of the effort of extrapolating (generally without need) an entire RQG character sheet. !i!

Simon has the right of it. Back in my early days of GM-ing RQ, I used to tear my hair out at having to write up complete character sheets for all of the NPCs (and monsters!), and my eyes would glaze over at the half-page stat blocks in published adventures. This was the Achilles Heel of BRP, I thought, when compared to D&D where all you needed was HPs, AC, and THAC0...oh, wait. That's pretty much all you need for BRP games, too. And that's roughly on scale with what you get with HQ stats. In published BRP adventures, I either highlight the relevant NPC stats that will come up in combat (the only time that level of detail is needed immediately) or list them on a note sheet. At all other times I just wing it and develop their personalities. HQ gives you a similar character outline that you can use to write abbreviated RQG crib sheets. What about all the potential Augments an NPC might employ? Don't use them all, you'll just make yourself crazy. Guaranteed, your players aren't going to remember all of their potential Augments. I know many of us can get wrapped around the axle trying to be as complete as possible in our GM preparation, but more often than not that's what keeps us from actually playing instead of helping. Oddly, it took me ages to figure that out with regard to RQ, while I had no problem understanding this when GM-ing Call of Cthulhu. Maybe that was because CoC went to pains to make itself look simpler in play. Regardless, after running a session for your players, take stock of all the vast detail they merrily traipsed past without notice. That is the agony and the ecstasy of being a GM. !i! [P.S. Yeah, screw Argrath. Can't let a loose canon like that hobble your players' ambitions.]

*cough* Call of Cthulhu *cough* Lloigor *cough* !i!

I reckon those guardsmen have a passion closer to Hate: This Shit-Stick Backwater Assignment, and even a crit on that is barely enough to augment getting out of bed in the morning. !i!

Bleah, yes, you're right. Reversed those two. That's what I get for waxing poetic. Regardless, it's on an upswing again, and it's pretty stuff. !I!

Dude. You just outlined my next character's origin story, and the long-term results won't be pretty. I'm just saying, you put a baby in a basket in a river, you'd better put a big rock in the bottom of that basket. !i!

The tide has ebbed and flowed several times in France, but as a result of a very successful crowdfunding campaign, it's ebbing again: https://www.mnemos.com/collections/nephlim-legende/ In the US, it's fair to say that the game didn't make it out of the '90s in any official capacity. !i!

This very feature of the game has also, I think, proven a challenge for many players. As I've stated elsewhere, it's no fewer than three, maybe four, different game concepts gathered under one cover. Then any given Past Life era potentially presents an entirely different historical setting if you engage in flashback play. I wholeheartedly agree that the game opens the pathway to -- almost necessitates -- personal research into world history, world religion, occult science and mysticism, conspiracy theory, current world affairs. It can be a daunting project to keep a lid on, and a steep price for admission. Imagine playing Call of Cthulhu sequentially or simultaneously in all of the published eras and genres, including the Dreamlands and Delta Green. It'd be wild! So how do prospective GMs wrap their arms around Nephilim? How do you keep that lid on to successfully bring it to a boil, but not blow out of control? What scope do you use to keep it in focus? What tools and GM/player resources do you want to see to make the game work as a game, and not just a research project? !i!

Who needs Rune font when we have Papyrus?

It's not a perfect fit, but what you're describing sounds more than a bit like Unknown Armies, a D100 derivative that owes considerable inspiration to BRP. !I!

It occurs to me that perhaps he's actually just holding the bow away from his body so that the string doesn't take his face off or open an artery. I dunno -- I've never drawn a bow anywhere near that pull. !I!

So which one is the secret identity? Batman or Bruce Wayne? Since we're talking comics (imagine that!), for any aspiring Nephilim player or GM, I can't recommend enough the entire body of work by Alan Moore. From Swamp Thing through Miracleman through Watchmen (and it's practical sequel by Kieron Gillen, Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt) through League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (and related titles) through Promethea through Providence, and beyond. Moore has always asked these vital questions: Who am I? What am I? How have I changed? Or have I always been this way, but thought I was something different? What's real? What's really real? What will I do to change the world? Will anyone appreciate what I've done for them? And does that really matter in the end? !i!

One of the most fascinating things I noted was the posture of the archer. He isn't dainty, and there's no graceful, heroic lean backward into his rear foot, or the upright posture of a modern target archer (who use much lower pull). He's leaning outward from his hips to wrangle control into that massive pull. Really, really interesting. !i!

"History is an Illusion, and Science is a Lie." Well, so is magic. Nephilim = Mystical transhumanism. !i!

Funny you should mention that. "I've got a gun that shoots six shades of s**t. What's your favorite colour?" By another coincidence, back in the day, that's exactly what I did with SuperWorld after we realised that it was too lethal to model our favorite Marvel comics. Worked like a gem! I tried Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, too, which has been mentioned up-thread. That worked super-easily, as we basically designed one character with a bird suit, then handed out copies to all of the players with provision for minor personalisation. !i!

It was mostly a matter of bad timing. The industry was in flux, the company was in flux, there were several very popular genre alternatives on the market already. I think it was also a time when people were reading RPGs more than they were playing them, and products were being written to that market. And then there was the CCG implosion of the late '90s that put the last few nails in the coffin for several projects. There was good stuff being written (and re-written) for the game, but that was always stuck at a flashing yellow light, very little green. That said, what I think was really at issue was this... There were no fewer than three, maybe four, good concepts rolled into those pages, and they sort of competed for attention, among potential players, among the writers. It made sense to the French market, but was competing (often with itself!) for attention on other shores. But then there was this... See, I never got this, as the French market clearly didn't squick at the concept, and the US market didn't seem to have a problem with homicidal, blood-sucking, bonded hostages. Ignore one brief paragraph at the end of page 83 and you're golden, with all the different paradigms the text recommends you avoid. But it wasn't written that way. We'll see what we can do about that. !i!

Glug. Brain and fingers not work right. 🤦‍♂️ I'll stick with the 261 to save face, though. [Come on, guys, this is my mother, not my Typing M261 skill.] !I! [Edit: On the other hand, I now have an ability with which I can kick Harrek's ass, so put the bear-shirt on notice.]

All is as said above. My "Love for My Mother 1M13" has become "Love for My Dead Mother 1M13". No less love, no less important, but it motivates me in different ways, including perhaps occasional melancholy, a Flaw. !i!

Hrmm. D&D 5e does seem to clutter the search results, doesn't it? I'm coming up dry, too, though. !i!

I remember getting pretty badly miffed by a bunch of trollkin who once told our party to "eat ****, ***holes!" I mean, how high-brow do you want to take this? As @g33k suggests above, it's often a matter of who's saying it to whom, and not so much a matter of what they say. !i!

I asked about consumer satisfaction with regard to development and delivery schedules across the industry. You quoted profit curves. Sorry if I wasn't clear enough, but you've made your point several times over. !i!

Yeah, and how's that been working out for the video game industry? I don't feel a wealth of confidence eminating from the fan base in general. !I!

Having recently played through my first heroquest, I reckon this is dead-on. The major obstacles in heroquests aren't opponents whose abilities are several orders of magnitude greater than the player-characters', but rather the characters' ability to gain admittance to the mythic stages of the quest in the first place. If you ever manage to engage with a myth that includes the likes of Orlanth or Yelm, you'll be on relatively equal footing with them -- inferior characters need not apply. Lesser characters start out pursuing lesser myths (like the clan legend that our characters re-enacted) and maybe work their way up the ranks. I used to get all hung up on the whole scaling issue, not being able to wrap my head around the notion of a mortal taking on the gods in a conventional stand-up fight when crossing over into the God Plane. But I've seen the light, and no longer think that's how it works. !i!

Emphasise that it's fun to fail! Seriously. What I mean is that Pendragon is all about the dynamic between intent and nature -- the player's ambition within the game and the character's actual personality. The two are not necessarily the same and are often at odds. Sometimes it plays more like the Sims as you watch your character do something foolish because, well, he's actually kind of a fool that way. That's a feature, not a bug. In a recent game, my character was neck-and-neck in a horse race with another player, and the only chance I had to win was to invoke a Passion for inspiration -- Love of his courtly amour, who was watching the race -- for a bonus to the roll and pull ahead at the finish. I failed the roll, fumbled it, actually. My character let up too soon while trying to grandstand for her, couldn't get his amour's attention until the wrong moment, lost the race, and his Love score plummeted as she hid her face in embarrassment. It was a stunning cascade of failure, culminating in Madness, and entirely in character in a way that I probably wouldn't have chosen as a player. And it was fun, because it was the character who was failing, not me as a player. There's been a lot of grousing over the years by players not comfortable with giving up directorial control over their character's thoughts and feelings (as opposed to, say surrendering directorial control when it comes to swinging a sword or breaking down a door), which is part of the dynamic of Pendragon and what makes it the game that it is. !i! [P.S. Combat mechanics are different from RQ, but that's the least of your worries. Pendragon is all about Personality Traits and Passions. You'll have some familiarity with those from RQG's Passions rules, but read through those sections a couple of times. You could feasibly jettison all the physical stats and play a game based entirely on the paired Personality Traits table.]

And there are so many different systems for Tékumel. Pick the one with the most evocative spell names -- Swords & Glory is great for overall flavor, and HQ can help pull it out of the deep, deep weeds. !i!