soltakss

From an outsider's point of view, asserting that the new RuneQuest is RuneQuest4 as it is the fourth Chaosium RuneQuest is pretty insulting to those non-Chaosium versions of RuneQuest as it effectively writes them out of the history of RuneQuest.

I think that this is a bad move.

Referring to the new version of RuneQuest as just RuneQuest is fine, as long as there does not follow an even newer version of RuneQuest in a few years.

Some sources say he was magically birthed by a dryad, but I am not sure about that.

He definitely had Fertility powers and owned the Earth Rune in the old RQ2 cult writeup, but he probably wouldn't have Earth nowadays.

Half duck? Probably not, but he liked ducks. Don't forget that ducks were partially the result of some EWF magicking where they brought back funny things from the Godplane. Pavis probably wasn't party to that himself but might have been the result of some similar messing about.

16 hours ago, g33k said:

Dunno why my prior Google-fu failed so utterly, but found it so trivially easily this time, but there ya go!

98 last time and 01 this time, maybe?

I have thought for a long time that all magic in HeroQuest has been made far too complex. Lunar Magic is just adding further complexity to an already over-complex system.

What would I do?

Drop the lot and have everything as an Ability that can be used to do things and to augment.

So, a Mage has a Grimoire and can use it to cast spells or generally to augment. A Priest has a Rune and can use it to cast feats and augment. A shaman has an ability that can be used to summon.control spirits and augment and so on. Lunars would work exactly the same, each Phase of the Moon provides an ability that can be used to do something and augment. What it does depends on how you interpret the Phase of the Moon, whichever school of magic is followed and who the person is, so a troll could use the Dark Moon to emulate Darkness magic but a Mage could use the Dark Moon phase to control demons.

And these used to be such nice forums ...

17%

4 hours ago, Mankcam said:

A return to the more ancient flavoured Orlanthi (and Malkioni) is a strong feature for me, as this is the kind of setting that initially grabbed me all those years ago.

Honestly, before Hero Wars came out, our Orlanthi were the least flavoured of the people. Praxians had a lot of background and flavour as did the Lunars, even the Oasis Folk and Pavisites had flavour, but the Orlanthi - nothing. They were in tribes, officially, but nothing was mentioned about the tribes in RQ2/RQ3,  Orlanth Adventurous was the cult of adventurers, people blown about by the winds. That was it.

This is the danger of even naming background analogues. If you say "Orlanthi are more like Mycenaeans than Saxons" then a lot of people assume this means that Orlanthi have all the traits of Mycenaeans. 

Personally, I'd be happier if someone could list out the attributes of the different types of Orlanthi, so Esrolian Orlanthi would be different to Heortland Orlanthi, to Sartarite Orlanthi, to the orlanthi of Aggar or of Pamaltela. Perhaps that would be a lot to do, so maybe have a core "Orlanthiness" list of attributes and then a list where the Orlanthi types differ.

I never assume that PCs or NPCs will survive. If an NPC is vital to a plot and the PCs kill the NPC then they will have a hard time working out the plot. However, this can spark a number of other plots.

Sometimes my players ask whether they can take out an NPC as it might affect the plot. I always say "sure..."

12 hours ago, Jeff said:

I do recall a legend where a beautiful queen or a ruler's wife distracted/weakened the enemy by going nude into battle. The awestruck enemy forces were then mowed down by the queen's soldiers. And I always enjoyed Phryne's winning defense in her trial by the Areopagus. Both I could imagine occurring in Glorantha (and at least one of those stratagems has been used by my female players in our HeroQuest game). But again, both of these are not simple cheese-cake pictures. I'm unaware of any story where a female combatant gained an advantage by wearing a bikini and a vest (heck, if you are going to invoke Eros, you really have to go all in).

One of our Vingans had Distracting Puppies as an ability in HeroQuest ...

Cellars also allow secret doors into tunnels, sewers and chaos temples.

Thanks - It would have been useful having the forum name alongside the password-restricted message ...

On 4/1/2016 at 3:11 PM, K Peterson said:

I think you mean Blood Tide. Though, "black sails" is in the description below the title...

I do indeed. I have been watching the Black Sails TV series and must have confused the two, thanks.

I noticed a number of topics are in password-protected forums.

As a matter of interest, what are these forums?

14 hours ago, g33k said:

I had always presumed that, after the Curse & later after Cragspider's work, the new Trollish varieties appeared in the very next generation...  I'm looking forward to the KS'ed "Trollpack" so I can look at the chart mentioned above!

Presuming my "spring full-grown the following generation" idea is wrong, then, I STILL probably would argue against the Trolls' example of "evolution".  It might be better to consider it as a (magically-directed & magically-accelerated) form of "controlled breeding."  Consider how a dog-breeder (for example) can create a new "breed" of dog in just a few generations.  If there were a God-driven curse on the pushing end of that, it could surely happen even faster...

Your  "spring full-grown the following generation" theory is probably right. Trollkin appeared straight after the Curse of Kin. Great Trolls appeared as soon as the HeroQuestors finished their pregnancies.

Dark Trolls are a bit different, but they only appear after the trolls left Wonderhome.

I would agree that trolls are not the product of evolution but of magical events. Dark Trolls are the result of leaving Wonderhome, Sea Trolls were caused by Pocharngo mutating trolls, Cave Trolls are also Pocharngo's work, I think, Trollkin are the result of the Curse of Kin and Great Trolls are the result of Cragspider's attempts to break the Curse of Kin. Hot Trolls are slightly different and might be the work of evolution, but I cannot remember if Lodril, or his mirror in Pamaltela, had a part to play. Midget Slashers are also troll-related but it isn't clear where they came from.

Pirates of Legend (Legend), Blood Tide (BRP) and Renaissance all have Black Powder weapons and can pretty much all work together.

2 hours ago, David Scott said:

The mosquitos are not disease carrying.

Some broos shamans might beg to differ there.

3 hours ago, David Scott said:

The taboo associated with this charm is Do Not Prevent Fire from Spreading.

The shaman who heads the Burners spirit society needs his Khan's permission to release Oakfed, something not done lightly.

That is a nice taboo - I could use that in our game. 

It is easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission ...

Didn't Waha's Trails and Ronance's Tracks both contain all kinds of nutritious and magical plants? Probably not all in clumps, but spread out thinly along the pathways.

In my Glorantha, the Syphon is a cursed river and nobody in their right mind would want to use it. Having said that, some people travel up from the Mirrorsea by boat and Storm Bullers from Esrolia would probably take that as a nice short cut to the Footprint.

Merrie England: Age of Chivalry split the Status skill into one for Social Standing, one for Wealth and one for Reputation, I think, although it has been a while since I wrote it. So, you could have a Poor Noble with a high Social Standing, low Wealth and whatever Reputation he had gained. It fitted in well with the BRP rules but added a little more flexibility.

11 hours ago, Steve said:

Group hug?

Gorp Hug ...

22 hours ago, Baron said:

So, I was having a sleepless night (my mother-in-law just passed away, and I'm putting my wife on a plane for the funeral today). I got up, scanned my phone while I had a glass of water, and decided to do a quick search for the kind of online commentary I'd seen over the years (the requested “specifics”). I came across Soltakss' site pretty quickly, and posted the link about the Issaries policy days. Then I went back to more sleepless time in bed.

At this point, I was posting any specifics about fan-based material disappearing from the web that I could scrounge up in a short time. Soltakss' comments on his site have been up for a long, long time. I wasn't trying to “score points” or “support positions against” whatever people he happens to like these days (because he certainly was upset back then); a man had just accused me of trying to scare people by making something up, assumedly because he thinks I'm seeking some sort of ego-gratification. Why I would think Soltakss would object to my quoting his public post that had been up for many years, I don't know. Happy to oblige you at this point though, sir.

No problem.

The comments on my website were made a long while ago and are not particularly relevant now. They are there for the record and I am still against the general idea of the old fan policy, but that policy is no longer current.

I don't mind people quoting me to make points, after all I post enough comments myself. However, I have always tried to be supportive of those companies publishing in the D100 family and don't really like to oppose them if at all possible. I am aware that my website is fan-based and could be closed down at any time, so don't want to take the risk that someone takes offense about something I said, so I try to be as careful as possible.

22 hours ago, Baron said:

Why Soltakss posts that I shouldn't refer to him because he's just a “fanboy” or because I wouldn't mention something I'd heard at a gaming table, I don't know. Of course I would! A source is a source. But at that point I hadn't read the posts that were appearing in the thread; I was just having a glass of water and killing fifteen minutes by copy-pasting links.

And Soltakss posts, and he's very nice to all the companies, says nice things to them. Then seems to have taken offense to me. I don't really understand why. I did what Rick asked. Sorry I quoted a long public statement that the Soltakss of today doesn't want me to. OK then, won't do that again.

It wasn't your fault and I haven't taken offence at you at all. Whilst I appreciate that people read my posts and my websites and find them useful/informative for some reason, I have never seen myself as anything more than a fanboy with a big mouth, so am always surprised/uncomfortable when people quote me or value my opinions. 

I just don't want people in power to come down on me like a ton of bricks for something I said ten years ago.

22 hours ago, Baron said:

Poking around specifically for maps being pulled, I immediately come back to Soltakss' site and find what I had in mind, that take-down letter from Jeff Richards, at Moon Design, sent to order Soltakss to remove his map of Pavis. Exactly what I had been referring to. Copied that link out too, posted it quickly (again without reading the threads) and went back to bed.

That is the only thing that I have ever been asked to take down. There was some confusion regarding the copyright notice, which was for the text not the modified map. However, my policy is to take things down if asked, so down it went.

22 hours ago, Baron said:

Now, sorry Soltakss. Again, I still hadn't read your reply asking that you not be quoted. So I won't paste the body of the take-down letter you received from Jeff. I haven't even re-read it since years ago, just pasted the link and went to bed. Perhaps this is the “one time” you refer to that you were asked to take something down, I don't know and you don't have to reply. But it IS the specific letter that I remembered reading years ago, that made me find Rick and Jeff's responses so “bold.” (Again, I was using a polite word. Would be nice to get credit for civility around here.)

The map was deemed to be breaching copyright, not the fan policy, they are different things.

As I have signed up for a fan website license, I am bound by its terms and take things down if asked. Other people took down their websites due to the very old Issaries fan policy, as they didn't want to sign the license.

You are one of the most civil posters on this forum, far more civil and patient that I am.

Early on in a campaign, I like to use coins. However, as the campaign goes on and the PCs become more wealthy, I handwave coinage and use wealth levels, when I can be bothered.

My current group of PCs rarely ever buy things. I can't remember the last time they bought a Battle/Spirit/Common Magic spell and almost never need to buy equipment.

3 hours ago, Jeff said:

That was from 11 years ago. And was a fan policy from Issaries (which no longer exists), not Moon Design, and not Chaosium. And a fan policy that Rick and I in fact were responsible for gutting and later ending.

And thank you for doing that.