Ian Absentia

Annually, I feel overwhelmed by the flood of New Year's memoriams*, when I know it must be happening throughout the rest of the year. We're all mayflies. Smoke 'em while you got 'em. And...be kind. !i! (*Daily, if I make the mistake of visiting a certain other game forum. :p)

Receive adequate support from its publisher. !i!

As stated by others (because it can't be emphasised enough), what really sets RQG apart from its forebears is Common Rune Magic and its broader availability. I really like Passions and Affinities, but it's Rune Magic that opens the doors and windows. !i!

Which makes Loyalty (Clan) 40% better than no Passion at all. So crime does pay. Which I believe is at the heart of the original question. It's clear that every Praxian begins play with Loyalty (Tribe) by default, but not Loyalty (Clan). How do you damage a reputation that doesn't exist? We've had discussions elsewhere about the point at which a low Passion is effectively a flaw, but the problem being that this sort of approach suggests default Passions for anything and everything at 60%. !i!

Let me put it this way. Aside from my days of playing HQ, I've never before had a starting RuneQuest character capable of being lifted by the winds of Orlanth and shining with the light of Yelmalio deliver a crushing spear-thrust with a modified to-hit upwards of 150%. It was a path that promised Bigger Things to Come. Which I've gathered is the intent of the design. Metaplot is fun to read, but don't let it shut down my party. !i!

I don't mean to suggest that the players' characters must be the focal and pivotal heroes of the setting. And in earlier editions of RQ it was fairly clear that they weren't expected to be. But in this edition they are made party to that level of power. Sure, it's a big world and there are lots of stories to tell, but deferring to Argrath by default shouldn't be preordained. In the last RQG campaign I played, I voiced my ambition to eventually track down and defeat Harrek, and maybe even raise a Golden Moon. The GM and his friends laughed and told me that it wouldn't happen, couldn't happen. Yeah, it would be a big swing, but being told that it conflicted impossibly with the metaplot was a total ****-block. That's what I mean when I say that Argrath occupies a position that the players ought to have, or at least have open to them. I realise that it's not currently fashionable to reassure everyone that YGWV, but, yeah, it will, and it should be encouraged. !i!

The problem I find with Argrath, given the elevation of heroic level escapades in this version of RQ, is that he occupies a position that the players ought to have. In earlier editions, you were lucky to be one of his followers; in this edition, he's stealing the limelight. Jar-Eel and Harrek less so, as they're generally presented as antagonists (unless your game originates from their POV, I suppose). !i!

So, I read that as "Sports Illustrated", which, in regard to all things mammalian, led me to envision the annual marsupial swimsuit edition. Strange indeed. !i!

Yes! Compare the cover painting with the assembly of villains depicted on p.30 of the Gamemasters Book. Opening my boxed set after several decades, out spills reams of write-ups of pretty much every popular Marvel character c.1984-86. There are a lot of disadvantages I wouldn't allow these days. !i!

Which is why land "lordship" is a fundamentally criminal enterprise. !i!

Does anyone else see the mopey Truss-face in the head of lettuce? That'd be the head on the right. !i!

Not as such, that I'm aware of, though several related titles touch on the topic: Mythras Firearms, M-Space, Luther Arkwright, Rubble & Ruin, Destined. Overall, it's not difficult to adapt the cultures and careers from Mythras to other eras, but, no, it's not curated. I do know that a number of us have discussed running Monster Island in more contemporary genres, so I'll flag down @Raleel. And @hkokko for good measure, in case there's some compiled list of genre alternatives that I've missed. !i!

We've read the books, haven't we? Or at least watched the movies and/or television series? I've seen more than one RQG character never get through the Homeland/Family History process. I just reject the idea that one is missing out on a lot by moving past just sitting there thinking about playing. !i!

I'll agree with you, provisionally, which is why I suggest that if you enjoy them as an intellectual exercise one should have at 'em. But if I've seen one major impediment to people playing the characters that they want in RQG, it's the pre-play Homelands/Family Histories mini-game. If it's not already published, it's a lot of work to come up with one of your own. I recommend that players get on in there and play, and not worry so much about canonical timelines. !i!

Right, which is why I think the answer to the question of "Why use RQG?" is because "It's what I have in my hands, and I like it." So, for Middle Earth: Selectively carve away the magic systems. These are largely NPC options. Download a copy of the KAP character sheet to reverse-engineer the Rune Inspirations to resemble Personality Traits. Don't worry about super-detailed Homelands or family histories, unless you're interested in them as an intellectual exercise. Use Homeland Base Passions (p.27) and Skipping the Family History (p.29). Focus on the basics for each of the very few Middle Earth "homelands". Combat will no longer be overwhelmed by magical pumping, though Passions and Inspirations will still hold sway. If anything, this should help combat run faster and more smoothly. Plenty of the creatures in the Glorantha Bestiary have Middle Earth counterparts if you ignore most of the flavor text. Elves and dwarfs are pretty much elves and dwarves. Tusk Riders and trollkin are your common grades of orcs/goblins. Great Trolls/Cave Trolls/small giants are trolls. Giant spiders will always be giant spiders. !i!

This. Reading through the responses, I found myself wondering: Why not King Arthur Pendragon instead? Emphasis on heroic ideals and passion? Check Magic-infused world, but largely as backdrop? Check Definitive, cultural/regional stereotypes? Check Yes, these are all things that one can tease out of RQG, and if you prefer the combat mechanics of RQG to KAP, you might just want to. But then, you might just want to 'port the Personality Traits mechanics from KAP, which aren't tied to world-specific mythology, over to any other BRP-based game that already features Passions and a cleaner-running combat engine. That said, I can see someone looking at their copy of RQG and saying, "You know, I should be able to do something with this book, but I don't really get the setting..." A lament not specific to RQG. !i!

Now, to that Combat Style you're making, add the Unarmed Prowess or maybe Daredevil traits, and elevate that street brawling to something a little more refined. Play with it! !i!

Yeah. Only that's really not all you're saying. Farts aside, you've been trivialising opinions and assigning a lot of motive to people who're trying to make sense of contradictory messages about cult membership. !i!

I was thinking more on this, and perhaps the intent was to include the fellow traveler of Passions in KAP -- the paired Personality Traits (which see use in RQG as Rune Affinities, but didn't make their way to Mythras). !i!

More beard on that impious lout! And where are the feathers?!? !i!

I use the term loosely. The follow-on from the Mongoose licensing and the commonalities that result. !i!

No need -- they're already there in Mythras. One of several OGL gifts that keeps on giving. !i!

Edward R. Murrow had a similar lament about television. It seems that every development in technology is co-opted as a delivery system for spam advertising and porn. !i!

Yeah, I did look past that and straight to Difficulty Grades for vehicular maneuvering. A common car is 11/28/44 meters per second (street/cruising/full throttle) vs a common human at 1.2/3.6/6 mps (walk/jog/sprint). Agreed that the type of vehicle is going to dictate the interface with a pedestrian, though I reckon your ox cart example might default to the Trample creature ability if it's the oxen that make contact before the cart and wheels. !i!

I haven't actually dealt with vehicles at speed in Mythras yet, that's an interesting question that I'm going to have to address soon. My thought, and i doubt this is remotely original, is to list a safe Cruising Speed (fast, but still maneuverable at Standard difficulty grade) and a Top Speed (full capable speed, but with significant shift in difficulty). For instance, a common passenger car might be listed as 100/160 kph. In fact. I might even consider increments of speed corresponding to successively higher difficulty shifts to the Drive skill, perhaps 60/100/130/150 (Standard/Hard/Formidable/Herculean). Appropriate mods for improved mechanics that aid maneuverability, etc. Wait, but the title of the thread mentions meters per second, more or less the scale used for strategic movement on foot. Did I miss something? !i!