styopa

12 hours ago, metcalph said:

Mages who control the world:  Zzabur.  

Mages who babysit the world:  Theoblanc, Gaiseron, Cragspider

Mages who plot the destruction or conquest of the world:  Delecti, Can Shu

Important Magical Organizations:  Hrestoli School of Loskalm, Rokari School of Seshnela.  Arkati Schools of Ralios.

That's a great list.  Thanks Peter.

1 hour ago, g33k said:

 But... no uber-mages?

 

There are plenty of ubermages.

cf. the Brithini

Delecti, sort of.

I think it's fair to say some gears don't perfectly mesh.  RQG is a major rework of a ages-old game system, trying to gather the best bits of subsequent editions, and then adding on a couple of neat bits like runes and passions.  It's in the early stages - the current edition already has some significant improvements in clarity and explanation, for example over the first version.

BUT...if you're ok with putting in a little effort to sand smooth the parts to your own satisfaction, it's an immensely rewarding system and NOT a carbon-copy of anything else out there.  The "issues" such as they are are pretty peripheral, and can usually be figured out common-sensically by gm and players, even if they're utterly new. 

I agree that RQG starts characters at too high of a power level for people new to the game (in D&D terms, think of handing someone new to RPGs a 7th or 8th lvl character) and would highly recommend a lower-power starting level for new players and GMs to minimize those moving parts as much as possible early on.  There are various suggestions how to do that in these boards as well as tips in the RQG rules already.

A great, comprehensive (I'm not kidding) system analysis of RQG is https://projects.inklesspen.com/fatal-and-friends/wrestlepig/runequest-roleplaying-in-glorantha/ if you want to get a feel for how the pieces work.

17 hours ago, Ultor said:

So...the planned encounter with a couple of Zorak Zoran priests (one also a shaman), some experienced troll warriors, trollkin slingers, and a variety of Dehori and spirits never occurred because for once the players decided to talk it out first...

The Death Lord on the other hand later on released his shades, had his allied spirit cast darkwall, cast seal wound, hammered against the Humakti's shield and broke it...and was promptly decapitated by the Vingan, who critted to the head despite the -75% penalty for the dark (so much for the allied spirit healing and supporting). The large shade did take out the Humakti and the Vingan, and a medium shade took out the shaman - all with fearshock. However, elementals are very easy to hit, and the Champion of Pavis armed with a composite bow and Multimissile 3 (3 magic arrows per shot, 3 times a round thanks to 19 DEX) and a quick NPC with Speedart were together able to make short work of them.

At some point I will have an encounter where the PCs are actually up against roughly equal numbers of similarly-skilled opponents or larger numbers of less skilled, and I'll try to post a summary here.

Please do!

41 minutes ago, Kolaxis said:

Excellent customer service. Good to see such great support for this game.

Dustin's probably working his proverbial fingers to the bone right now.

28 minutes ago, klecser said:

I'll be unboxing the slipcase on my YouTube Channel (RPG Imaginings) as someone who has never played Runequest before. I think it will be interesting to see how it looks to someone with fresh eyes. I'm very attracted to Runequest as an alternative to the "mainstream" fantasy RPGs.

Looking forward to it.  Since you won't self-promote, I'll link it https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC9EqFqKBETCBse8JuOOYOg/videos?disable_polymer=1

Well lit, and decent sound quality/volume puts you immediately in the upper half of youtube products.

1 minute ago, godsmonkey said:

$66 and change with shipping to Florida.

 

Subtotal:

$119.99

Coupon Code (******************):

-$62.00

Shipping:

$9.00

Grand Total:

$66.99

Same.

1 hour ago, gochie said:

This is a really good question that I've clearly never put enough thought into. 

I always thought of second sight as letting you see "souls" (POW) in the real World, but not the spirit world.

But then, I know a shaman's fetch is in the spirit world, and his second sight is due to looking through his fetch's eyes...

Maybe the fetch simply shares his "glasses" with he shaman, and let's him see the world the same way the fetch sees the spirit world? 

I don't have a problem with SHAMAN 2nd sight (innate, via the fetch) being intrinsically better than that from a spell.

Since the Shaman is simultaneously on BOTH sides of the veil, they can see both sides.  Otherwise, I'd say 2nd sight only lets you see stuff on your side.

It's why we've long since HRd even in RQ3 that 

a) a parry vs a natural weapon attack can harm the attacking thing (ie why even dumb animals tend only to bite as a last resort, when enraged, or when they feel no risk in the attack).

b) you CAN parry with just your hands (watch any video of a knife attack - people try to do it all the time), for a default 3AP (+whatever armor is on the arm/hand).  Anything in excess of that automatically goes to that arm/hand, obviously.

RQGs rule about parrys vs even ineffective attacks forlds that in nicely.

10 hours ago, Steve3742 said:

Before anybody gets too worked up about this, I suggest they look at a calendar.

What if I *want* it to be true?

/sob

/disappointed

15 hours ago, Jeff said:

It really depends on which culture you are talking to. I don't mean to be funny, but when you look at an international audience, the D&D tropes are not always the main trope setting for frpgs. There are even some parts of the gaming world where Call of Cthulhu is the cultural default for frpgs!

An absolutely fair point.  I was speaking from an ethnocentric US viewpoint, which is absolutely not universal.  Good observation.

15 hours ago, Oracle said:

In fact I would say, the trope setting for FRPGs is The Lord of Rings, which is also the role template for a lot of other fantasy novels and games - and especially for D&D, which was the first FRPG being published. But that's one of the reasons, why I like Glorantha so much, because it is such a change compared to all the copies.

Not to sound elitist, but my observation is that the D&D standard elves/dwarves/dragons/dungeons thing tends to eventually wear thin, and longer-term players of a certain outlook tend to want something more from their setting and game.  This OF COURSE depends a huge amount on the GM...certainly 5e *can* deliver a subtle, rich, varied, non-canonical world FRP experience.  ...but it's not what you get opening the box, so to speak.

10 hours ago, The God Learner said:

Note that the literary sources of D&D are far broader than LOTR, and not only because of the threat of lawsuits. Vance, Leiber, Burroughs, Howard, Anderson, and so on. Have a look at the books in Appendix N for a gateway drug of sorts; there is far worse to read. (http://digital-eel.com/blog/ADnD_reading_list.htm) You will find the origins of forgetting spells, the Assassins Guild, regenerating green trolls and much more.

One of our players - the one deeply into sorcery (math major in college, surprised?)  - admits he's basically forever spoiled against D&D because of his deep, visceral dislike of Vancian magic.  Loves the Dying Earth books as much as I do, but as a world to PLAY IN, Glorantha's magics just seem so much more authentic and "realistic".

On 3/31/2019 at 8:56 AM, Paid a bod yn dwp said:

Yes quite fancy having a 2nd printing. This is the incentive I need 

That alone is going to be worth it for me.  

Thank you!

On 3/29/2019 at 9:16 AM, GianniVacca said:

Don't want to sound aggressive or whatever, but what you call 'fantasy tropes' are actually D&D tropes. 

As much as some might like to resist it, D&D is the cultural default, trope setting for frpgs.

On 3/28/2019 at 9:44 AM, Hyperlexic said:

I'm going to look back at RQ6/Legend and see what that has.  I seem to recall the Action Point system and thinking 'wow that's interesting... complicated but interesting'.

It's not a bad effort, imho number of action points is HUGE and the breakpoint is *just* above human avg, so slightly-better-than average will crush average, all else being equal.  The SFX were too determinative and action-movie for me.

SRs in RQ were honestly one of the systems that needed fixing but doing so was an early sacrifice on the "we have to be backward-compatible withe rq2' altar.  Our HR system reverses it (so you want a high Dex SR to go first, and is all quickness based, with longest weapons striking first only when closing.

If sometime ends up with an extra rule book (for free) that they don't want, I'm sure there will be people (probably from my own game group) that would be happy to buy a 2nd hand copy.

3 hours ago, Mac said:

Who knows, maybe I will be able to do some deal with you.  I am presently trying to deal with Chaosium direct. I already have two full paid up hard copies, one being leatherette, so, as you may imagine, a third does me no favours.  There are other ways Chaosium can handle this hiccup, and I am waiting to see if they will resolve this like the upstanding people they are.  If not, maybe you can have all my RQ stuff😞

You're in a pretty unique situation, having already bought 2 copies. I imagine they'll try and help you if they can.  But imo it's a little harsh to start out expecting disappointment.  Why? Have they actually disappointed you already?

6 minutes ago, Mac said:

If I understand this e-mail correctly, then I am very upset with Chaosium.  I feel I have been subject to a “bait and switch”.  I own a PDF rules, a leatherette rules and a regular hard copy rules.  i have PDF Bestiary and PDF GM Pack.

For this release I was going to add the hard copy Bestiary and GM pack and an empty slipcase to put my 3 hard copies in.  I feel that Chaosium has long stated that we could buy the empty slipcase later, and are now reneging on that deal.  Are we to be punished for trying to support Chaosium early, and purchasing items singly?  Too awkward to ship is a disgusting excuse!  You can put my two hard copies in the slipcase and pack the third spot with paper.  I was even considering purchasing another product which could have filled the void.

Come on Chaosium, you can be better than that.

If I understand MOBs post, if you have the ruleset printed, where you would have had a coupon for a slipcase and the other books, you're going to get a FULL slipcase (ie including another hard-copy of the rules) instead of partially-empty slipcase.  So you're getting another printed rulebook (ie the latest version) FOR FREE.

This hardly sounds like cheating anyone?  In fact, as the earlier posters here commented, it seems almost too good to be true.  Which is why we're awaiting perhaps restatement from MOB/Rick whomever.

2 hours ago, Hyperlexic said:

Right - I'm just wondering what the rules as written really mean, and going back to my original question - any example of how this really plays out.

Is there a good actual play recording?

We did SoI (basically because we didn't really even question it) for a good 10 years.  I'd built up some reasonably smooth change-of-statement mechanics.

Then I played some 5e, and saw that I really wouldn't lose anything as a DM by letting people just decide what they were doing when they did it and dumped the complications.  Combat hasn't been one whit less 'crunchy' and goes significantly faster, actually.

9 minutes ago, Hyperlexic said:

Thanks to various people for their comments.

I guess my fundamental question is: should we be using D&D style turn order in RQ:Q - where basically we just decide who acts in what order, and each person in turn takes their complete action?  Or are we supposed to be counting off strike ranks?

Each approach seems to have issues.

Somehow we didn't seem to have this issue 25-30 years ago when playing RQ3, but maybe that's just because we didn't try to apply the rules too closely.

 

RQ combat classically has been 

• Statement of Intent (before anything else in the round; we used to have players state their actions in order of lowest INT characters first)
• Count down through the strike ranks, where players take their actions in pursuing their Statement; everything that happens on SR6 happens on SR6 for everyone simultaneously (or highest dex first, if it matters)

It's an impulse-based quasi simultaneous system.

43 minutes ago, Joerg said:

Second Sight doesn't take you across the veil. It only shows you the otherwise invisible spirits on your side of the veil.

As an analogon, heroquesters between quests don't get to watch the hero plane. To perceive and experience that, they have to cross over.

Precisely this.  The barrier is the barrier.

24 minutes ago, CBDunkerson said:

Second Sight specifically allows you to see spirits whether they be in the spirit world, bound into an item, possessing a creature, a Shaman's fetch, or whatever.

These are all spirits 'stuck' on this side of the screen.

10 hours ago, Crel said:

In an RQG Glorantha using your rule suggestions, how would you ballpark price Truestone or Adamant? Although this is obviously not the sort of thing you can just run on down to the marketplace and hand over coins for... For reference, 1ENC of unenchanted iron is 700L, and enough metal to make a broadsword. 1ENC of gold is 600L.

Sorry man, I'm RQ3 context...on that scale, I'd probably be somewhere around the price of iron?  Maybe?  In the west, likely it would be higher - around 800-1000.  *BUT* I think the unit-price would go UP with larger and larger chunks.  4 ENC of 0.5 ENC truestones might only be 2500p, but a single 4 ENC truestone would be easily double that.

1 hour ago, Sumath said:

Well, we know he had hits with singles such as 'Stand and Deliver' and 'Prince Charming'. Right, pop-pickers?

Except adamants magic apparently then fades very, very rapidly with time?

in re Truestone, the GtG has little to say, with a few references to it in massively durable magical constructs (the Juggernaught, the Capstan of Curustus, as well as a commentary that often people call anything they don't know 'truestone'.

It is mentioned as an actual Trade Good, so while rare and valuable, it's not priceless.  Adamant is referred to just as infrequently, mainly mentioning things made of it (doors, pillars, spikes) and tools which can cut astonishingly hard things.  IIRC general conversation over the years is that Truestone is refined into adamant, but only Dwarves know how and (I'd expect) it's a) not easy and b.) a pretty tightly controlled secret even within their society.

So based on that I might submit the following assertions:

Truestone is raw ore.  It is the stuff of raw Law, the raw material from the Spike which was shatterred across Glorantha.  As such, it is as dangerous to touch as Raw Chaos (think acids and bases - they're opposites chemically/atomically, but both really nasty ...Life only exists in BETWEEN them).  Law is not Stasis, but is conceptually connected to it.  Touching either primal chaos (which is a goop) or a chunk of Law (Truestone) would immediately do 1d3 per round to unprotected flesh.  

Chaos is trying to turn everything it touches into chaos goop: it turns solids to liquids, and liquids to goop at this 1d3 HP/AP per round rate per ENC of Chaos.  Basically, nothing can 'hold' it permanently, although things can hold it as long as their structure holds out.  Magically, it's nearly as dangerous, each round's direct contact causing a random spell known by the caster to discharge: Roll 1d12 for the SR the effect 'pops' in that round (there's no way to stop it by breaking contact that round...it's going to happen, this is just WHEN).  That number is also indicating the largest spell value that can be triggered: for Divine it's half the roll, for Spirit magic spells it's the roll, and for Sorcery it can be any spell but that's the MP going into it (distribute points randomly across duration, intensity, range).  Select randomly across available spells that fit that limit.  (Remember that spirit/divine spells are known sequentially, so someone who knows Heal 3 *also* knows Heal 2 and Heal 1...that would be 3 possible spells).  Target is 1d3: (1 on the caster, 2 on the chaos substance, 3 on a random bystander within range).  An attack spell hits that target; a buff spell buffs that target (so it might not always be bad).  Unfortunately, the consequence is always negative: the memory of that spell is burned away unless later learned again.  The rune points used for the spell (for divine) are lost permanently.  The MP used (for spirit magic and sorcery) are burnt away and will not come back unless restored with a later POW gain roll (ie the character will always have X less MP than their POW until that happens).   Yes, this is nasty for sorcerers as their art is intrinsically about manipulating magical laws and thus they are particularly vulnerable to the touch of chaos.  Finally, the touch of chaos will likely (20*ENC vs target's POW) impart chaos feature(s): 1 for a success, 1d3-1 for special, 1d6-2 for a crit..yes, a crit might actually take AWAY a chaos feature.   It's REALLY unpredictable!)

Truestone (Law) tries to order everything it touches, turning air into liquid (thus it always feels cold near it) and liquid to crystal.  So in fact Truestone is much more easily handled, once this layer of ice around it has transformed to crystal enclosing the Truestone itself.  Accessing the truestone power requires scratching off this layer physcially exposing the truestone.  Truestone integrated into a piece of armor or structure will reinforce it by constantly trying to order/stabilize it, repairing 1d3 AP/HP per round per ENC of Truestone.  Truestone will absorb spell abilities (select as per Chaos, above), holding them as one-use castable within the Truestone by anyone who holds & can compel it.  Spells can be absorbed through the protective layer crystal from anyone touching it, but compelling the casting FROM the Truestone requires skin contact.    This casting does NOT use the wielder's RP/MP, and is not otherwise manipulateable.  Merely having Truestone in one's possession will grant the bearer +20% cast chance (& effects, if possible) of any spell with the Stasis or Law rune, and -20% to any Movement or Chaos spells.

Chaos and Law coming into direct contact are annihilatory; I'd suggest d100 damage at the point of contact PER TOTAL ENC of the two combined, halved for every meter of distance from that point.  Yes, it's enough to...blow up a mountain.  This ignores the 'protective layer' around Truestone.

Adamant, the metal refined from Truestone (I'd assume this would take some sort of concentrated magical heat beyond even the heat of magma; it refines at a rate of 2ENC Truestone : 1ENC of Adamant) becomes an exceptionally hard, silvery metal.  It has 5x the AP of bronze, and does direct, full damage to AP/HP of any parrying weapon or physical structure being attacked.  It does double damage against constructs and essentially magical /summoned creatures (elementals, demons, etc) and any target with a chaos taint (who all find themselves uncomfortable in its exposed presence).  It is unharmed by, and does triple damage to Gorp.  It loses all inadvertent magic-absorbing properties BUT anyone touching an adamant construct MAY (voluntarily) cast spells into it which are then 'held' and castable by anyone else later touching that article.  The maximum amount of "spell" it can hold is ENC in MP, or 1/2 ENC in RP or a mixture of the two.  The later 'caster' would cast the magic at the original input caster's ability/POW/etc.

12 hours ago, drablak said:

There were criticals and fumbles in AD&D, it's not something 5E got from RQ.

Huh?

NAFAIK....where were crits and fumbles in AD&D?

Question came up this session: we all know what happens when truestone is touched by a character with rune points (ie divine magic), but...

Does it do anything to a person's spirit magic?  What about a shaman with no divine magic?  What about a sorcerer?  Or a dragon?

Maybe it says it buried in the Guide or Elder Secrets, but I don't recall any specifics for these contexts.