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Uh Nick, look at those accounts. AH acquired the rights to RQ. THat's why AH were able to put out those RQ3 supplements that were not written by Chasoium. AH owned the rights to RQ, until they let it lapse. As for "much of it being over ten years old", it does point out how Chasoium has handled things in the past, and also how the and handling things now. "Too little, too late" is typical for Chaosium. Look at the people who snapped up BRP "Zero". IT took then a long time to get BRP out, and many were worieed that the book would never get released. At the rate they are putting stuff out, BRP won't survive.

Gee, look at all the "trouble" you caused me, "bug". skarl, just becuase a company doesn't like the fair use law, doesn't mean it doesn't apply.The law exists, but companies don't have to like it, and don't draw attention to it.. LIkewise, even when it does apply, that doesn't prevent a company from making char5ges and trying to sue someone in court for damages-typically more money than the accused has. That's why a lot of sites will remove stuff the moment they get a cease & desist letter and a threat to sue them for gazillion dollars. Its usually better to take down something, even if you are in the right, than go to court and take the risk of losing everything you have over it. Unfortunately, the US legal system is a lot like a Poker game. People with more money have a good chance of "raising" thier opponents out of the game. I7ve actually been in a similar situation, and despite the fact that I was completely in the right (I didn't even do the thing I had been accused of), and had the proof to back it up, I was still intimidated by the legal resources being thrown against me (in this case, Warner Brothers). So companies do make claims and threats even when the law is not on thier side.

Who put the gun to thier heads and forced them to sell RQ to AH? No, Rosen, at least some of the blame for the situation must fall on Chasoium. Selling off what was thier No 1 properrty at the time was their decision. It was done with the best of intentions and for good reasons (to reach a larger market, and to help with the finacial difficulties they were having even then, when they were productive), but it was a bad move. Chaosium though that CoC and Stormbringer would pick up the slack and fill the gap caused by the loss of RQ, but Strombringer never got the fanbase that RQ had. Chasoium gambled on AH and lost. Thier choice of supporting CoC at the near exclusion of everything else also is thier own fault, and has left them with a small niche of the RPG market. Ditching Steve Perrin was also thier own call. Splitting up into mutiple companies, thier own fault. Currently, they can be blamed for (yet again) losing the core book author. Also, they can be blaimed for failing to adapt to the market. They are still trying to do things in a manner similar to the way the did things in the 80s, when they should start acting more like an indie publisher.Chaosium hasn't seem to learn how to take advantage of things like print on demand. They are perpetually falling short of their goals. Look how long it took then to get the new BRP out. With no setting or adventures to speak of. Any hope of BRP taking off and getting some of the popularity that us fans have hoped for since the early 80s is already shot. "Too little, too late". BRP isn't going to compete with games that are getting support. I7m sure the folks running Chasoium mean well, and that they would like to put stuff out to support BRP and maybe pick up some maretshare, and maybe even become a presence in the RPG field again. I just think they lack the resources to do so. Yeah, but Chasoium seems to perpetually be in that state. Considering just how little RPG authros are paid to begin with that's scary. Maybe not here, but somone will somewhere. Just look at the hoast of BRP/RQ inspired RPGs out there. One thing MRQ has proved is that there are those people who will buy compable/semi-compatible stuff regarldess of who is making it. Quite a few BPR fans have been getting MRQ supplmenets and suing them for settings and rules that BRP has yet to cover. Most people will buy what they see on the shelves and can order. And whoever gets stuff out will make the sales. We might be willing to wait and give Chasoium time to get stuff out, but most gasmers won't, and there goes any hope of expanding Chasoium's fan base.

Skarl, Yeah, it is possible for an image to be misused that way. Any tool can be misused. In the case of cover images though, the images are already out there. Places liek Amazon or DriveThru.RPG put op the cover art for virtually everything the sell, as does anyone wo sells an item on eBay. All is legal under the laws of the US and many other countries as part of the rights of the seller/end user. By selling art to be used on the cover to promote a product, an artist looses some or all rights to the art and how it is used (depending on the terms the art was sold under). It sort of has to be this way, otherwise the people who buy a book or vidoe would not be allowed to look at or read it. Now talikng an image form a product and using it for something else (to adorn little boxes, for example) isn't the same thiung, nor would it be covered under the Fair USe law.

Sorry, but I've been hearing that from Chaosium since the the mid 80s and RQ3. I didn't happen then, and I doubt it will happen now. Hence the scramble to buy BRP Zero. How many BRP Fans were wondering if BRP was even going to make it to the shelves., let alone supplements? Yeah the economy is poor, and yeah Chaosium is in/has been in financial difficulties from Day Two. But that just makes it all the more likely for them to drop the ball, again. I'm kinda expecting BRP to die off due to lack of official support. It'd pretty much much the normal route for a Chaosium RPG, CoC being the notable exception.

I7m not so sure. It could be that the guy just lacks tact. I recall an incident on another board where there was a guy who used "trash talk" all the time. Not to be rude, but because that was how all his friends acted and he just didn't know any better. Kyle has always been outspoken, andnever seems to tread lightly. So I'm not sure if he means to be offensive, or is he is just "extremely self assured" and it is coming out in his text. Or maybe, he is doing it all tongue in cheek. I'd like to give Kyle the benefit of the doubt, especially as thing don't always come out in type the way we had intended them to. Yeah, it most cases it would be counter productive for the copyright holder to act on it anyway, as it isn't hurting sales, and for a "live" RPG, actually can help to increase them. It is essentially free advertising. Also, going after someone in a case like this can generate a fan backlash. Paramount fou8nd this out the hard way about ten years back when they started going after Star Trek sites. What ended up happening was that many fans simply moved on to other shows, who'se producers were more than happy to recieve the increased attention--and ratings. P.S. It's nice to know the board's schoolteacher doesn't disregard my opinion over spelling errors. :thumb: Doubt you'd be able to grade a term paper under that restriction.

Actually the Fair Use law is more of a vague guideline than a narrowly defined rule. Judgment is based primarily upon the following factors: 1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; 2. the nature of the copyrighted work; 3. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and 4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. In this specfic instance: 1) The "use" is for non-profit. 2) The nature of the copyrighted work was to draw attention to, and promote the sale of the product it adorned. 3) Only a very smalll portion of the work (the cover) has been used in comparison to the body of the work. 4) The effect on the market value for the product is negligible. Triff is aware of and has the products in question already, so it isn't going to keep him from buying it. Now considering that US courts have generally allowed parts of works to be reproduced to replace missing or damaged material (for instance, it's okay for a library to photocopy the last paged of a mystery novel and paste it in the back of a book missing said page), I'm pretty secure that this would probably be considered "fair use" under US law. One problem with the "fair use" law in the US today, is that few companies like it or want to acknowledge it. For instance the major sports franchises in the US claim that reproducing any part of a game is prohibited, and have even gone after TV News programs for showing excerpts of games.

Say Nick, DO you have any guidelines for submissions?

Ouch, this is worrisome. Like most of us long term Chaosium fans, I expect delays, and am not surprised if things are released "sluggishly". Just look how long it took for BRP to get released, and some people bought "zero" out of fear that the book might never be published. But when the author of BRP is having problems communicating with the company, let alone getting something published, I start to worry that Chaosium might be shooting itself in the foot again. If you are having problems working something out with Chaosium, and you wrote BRP, what is it going to be like for others? Very worrisome.

Glad you didn't take it seriously, I'm pleased to know you were smiling when you typed that. Again you miss the point. Lets look at a more serious crime, say murder. Now it might not be a bright idea to talk about it with someone at the locale coffee shop,. Actually bringing the corpus delicti with you to Starbucks, is definitely going to increase the chances of others taking notice of the act-significantly. One other big factor in not doing anything on a public forum is that there is less chance of some third party being rude and insulting. I know you don't take my opinion seriously, but I do take yours seriously. Others have mentioned that being rude doesn't help in getting your points across--Unless being rude is your point. I think Triff knows already.

True. But on the other hand the art was commisioned to advertise/promote the product within. Pretty much every on-line store uses images of covers to improve sales, and the companies behind the product not only encourage it, but participate in it. FOr instance, the cover's) for BRP were made available to us fans here, and with good reason. If nothing else it makes it easy for us to find the book on the shelves. Personally I belive that an artist has no right to gripe if he sells an image to be usedas a cover and it shown/copied to promote said product. Most such use would be covered under the "Fair Use" law in the U.S. Otherwise no one could ever write a review and/or show the cover without getting into hot water.

If you are really into GLorantha, you might want to look at HeroQuest. It has an even more mythic/epic feel than RQ, but uses a differernt game system and isn't for every RQ fan.

You miss the key difference between the two. Your "mates" aren't likely to report you for copywrite violation. Especially since they are the ones recieving it, and probably asked for it in the first place. With an open forum or gallery, anyone can access the image and therefore somebody might complain and cause you some grief. I once got a very nasty letter from Warner Brothers because of just this situation. Fortunately, they were in error.

If you can get it, start with the old RQ2 Borderlands boxed set. It probable one of the best campaign packs ever written. There is an RQ3 version of it, too. The campaign pack sets up the PCs as hired mercenaries in a border area. It is nice for beginning GMs and players as it gives a lot of information of the area, and is written in such a way that the PCs can learn along the way. It comes with 7 pamphlet adventures that make a campaign, and are of increasing difficulty. It even starts off with the characters taking a "tour" of the campaign area and meeting some of the major characters and groups. The isolated nature of the setting means that GMs and players don't have to deal with everything at once, and can pick up a lot of the Glorantha specific stuff gradulally. The set also gives a lot of extra information and plot threads that makes it easy to write additional adventures in the area, and comes with a booklet of prewritten NPC and monsters. Pavis (and the Big Rubble) are reasonably close by, so it is fairly easy to send the PCs there if desired, and use those campaign packs. Of course, the big question is what rule set are you using? RQ2? RQ3? MRQ? BRP? Depending on what rules you are using you may have to adapt some things. MRQ is the least like the other three, and probably takes the most work to covert to and from, but its not impossible.

My two cents. I think a +1 is reasonable for an armored fist, but plate wouldn't be any more effective than mail for this. One drawback is that the increased mass does make the punches a bit slower, too. I'd give a penalty to punch skill, or let the character uses cestus skill if they have it. Specialied gaultets (spiked,etc) could get cestus damage. As for power armor, I'd say it should get the same adds as norn-powered armor. Power Armor would also benefit from the improved damage bonus (if any) derrived from the increase in STR (hey it is "powered" armor) and SIZ (I'd add the SIZ/ENC of the armor to the character's for things like calculating the damage bonus) they provide.

Yeah, we think a lot alike on this. I think it is a combination of the point you raised earlier, and a shift in the emphasis of RPG design. Back in the RQ days, games were getting more "realistic" and more math heavy to try to get a more detailed game model. Even D&D fans went though a lot of variant XP formulas. That required more number crunching ability among gamers. Today, the emphasis is on simple, fast,mechanics-lite rule systems. SO I think there is more opposition to doing math of any sort. Plus, we did more math on a daily basis back then, before the PC revolution. My state has a 5% sales tax, so my stat7s tax table IS the RQ critical table. It probably helped people pick up the math when the realized it was the same as the sales tax the were calculating every day.

One thing I always wondered about it just how an artist can copywrite something that is based on another work. For instance if an artist creates a painting that is obviously a scene based on LOTR or Star Trek, how can that artists holdnrights to the image? I can understand how some thing would be generic and not (i.e.elves), but how could someone copywrite an image of the Enterprise as "original" work?

Thanks soltakss, You gave me much more that I asked for, too. :thumb: THe stats do help to see how easy it is (or isn't) to port something over from one system to another. With the noticeable difference of putting structure points on character scale, the stats are very similar, if not identical, to those in RQ3 and Sailor on the Seas of Fate. BTW, I take it Hull works as armor?

I7m not surprised. We tend to think alike on a lot of topics around here. For me doing "divide by 10" is easy. THen I just mutiply that by two or divde by twoto get the percentages. Or just rember the 230%/50%/70%/90% breakpoints for crticals. But as MRQ has illustrated, a lot of people can't do that sort of math in thier heads easy, or even work out the resistance table.

RQ3 had much of the same stuyff as Sailor on THe seas Of Fate, but slightly modified, and with ships that were not specific to theYoung Kingdoms. Neither are quite the same as BRP though.

Hey Simon, Could you give us a sample ship writeup from RQ Pirates so we can see what it is like and how it compares to/adapts to BRP?

Normal rounding has been the standard in every BRP game. vI find it fairly easy, thanks to the "3/5/7/9 rule". The critical breakpoints are 20% apart, going up at 30%, 50%, 70% etc. Some people prefer a straight 1/10% percentage (ala Stormbringer),. I think it all kind of boils down to how well a particular group can handle the math. Some people can calculate critical chances in their had on the fly, others find the 5% critical chance to bog their game down. Personally, I think that practically everybody should be able to calculate the special and critical chances in their heads, but apparently that is not the case.

Deja Vous?:eek:

Hi Triff, Scans on the way. Sorrythat I took so long, but I think my scanner is dying.

Triff, I've got them, and will try to scan them tonight.