styopa

if you want to give all players the same building blocks, let them allocate using the 4e method: 16,14,13,12,11,10 (RQ has one more stat, so it's up to you which you give them; I'd probably say another 13 or if you're feeling generous, a 15 since it's missing from the sequence. Then let them allocate stats as they want. The "power scaling" of stats is approximately the same as D&D.* *It's worth noting in chargen that RQG has decided to go back to RQ2 break-point-based stat bonuses, instead of RQ3's smooth scaling. That means that: for HP, the breakpoints for locations are at CON 10+, 13+, and 16+ for skill bonuses, the critical breakpoint is 13. (a 13 will give you the same bonus as 14, 15, or 16).

Well, pedantically yes. But when a "rule system" is written like RQG with great effort toward synthesizing the setting and the rules into an homogeneous whole, the distinction between "setting" and "rule system" is made somewhat less clear. I'm delighted to hear that's an eventual goal for the RQ(X) mechanics. When I googled Mythic Iceland Chaosium I got (https://www.chaosium.com/mythic-iceland-1/ "... Pedro Ziviani is writing an updated and revised edition of his Mythic Iceland book for BRP. This will be the first release using the new BRP Essentials, the forthcoming 32 page booklet containing the core elements of the BRP system....." ) which would explain my confusion that it is a setting for BRP.

Yep. There was some discussion about whether RQG would take the opportunity to fix the broken historical hp-per-location maths, or just use the clunky RQ2 historical table. Nostalgia wins!

Agree completely canonically, but would argue that for RQG as a product it needs to be ONE consistent map of relationships.

Ah, you're talking about BRP. I was talking about RQG ported to fantasy earth. There's a pretty big distance between BRP and RQ now.

I think it's simpler than that, I'd guess that applying a potential INT loss starting at age 40 would be too colossally damaging to "wise old ...." paradigm. Everyone accepts without a second thought that a 60 year old should likely not be much of melee combatant any more, but the meme is that spellcasters, even shamans, get older and wiser. Given Glorantha's deep-threaded magicalness, I'd consider favorably the desire of a player to have their character spend a rune point to offset an aging-related stat loss. In that case, I'd take the table I'd illustrated above and slightly modify it: ...and modify it slightly that you roll d100+your age over 40. So a 60 year old would be rolling d100+20.

And every Thanatar cultist that gets an Eirithan rune lord's head. I can't see *anyone* causing trouble with that, can you?

I cannot imagine there will ever be a fantasy earth version*, as the authors (and much of the RQ2 fanbase) rather despised AH's disconnection of RQ from Glorantha. Despised might actually be understating it. *not to say some fan mightn't develop a total conversion, but the legalities of trademarks, etc would certainly have to be clearer.

Aging loss table p425 is mislabeled (Where it says "characteristics affected" is wrong, it's actually the number of rolls on the subsequent table.) and needlessly Byzantine, currently requiring a 2d6 roll and then a d10 roll for each of 0-4 results, each of which has a 20% chance to be "no result". The entire thing boils down mathematically to a MUCH simpler result: 01-50 No loss 51-74 1 loss 75-90 2 losses 91-98 3 losses 99-00 4 losses For each loss roll 1d4: 1=-1 STR, 2=-1 CON, 3=-1 SIZ, 4=-1 DEX. Yes, this is mathematically PRECISELY the same chance of each result happening. And intuitively easier to explain. (One could actually even drill further, building the d4 potentials into a single table, but that would have to be a d1000 or something odd, as the % chance of events gets distributed below the 1% resolution of a d100...) (Apparently since you can't lose INT with age, dementia isn't a thing in Glorantha?)

That's exactly where I recognized it as a problem - I ran it for FreeRPG day last year, and pretty early in the adventure we as a table agreed to some limits on usage; not only was it sort of silly (anyone reasonably creative can come up with SOME use for SOME rune in pretty much any situation without too much stretching) to have augments everytime anything important was rolled for, it slowed down the activity as we interrupted the narrative to resolve the "subloop" of suggesting, ruling, then rolling on and applying augment results. Certainly YGMV. I expect this will vary wildly between play groups - some GMs won't have any issues with augments flying all over, while other groups GMs will be parsimonious and pedantic about their applicability.

(Sigh) for the retention of break point laden skill mods. 😕

Exactly, simply correct. This is how I've always seen opposed rolls resolved. I know in beta versions of the rules there was a lot of back and forth about whether opposed rolls would even be included, so I'm unsurprised that the text reflects some confusion.

One might think then that they had what, nearly 40 years to recognize it's ridiculously overpowered? Trickster rune lords would flock around anyone stupid enough to cast this spell, because the moment they cast it, nearly everyone within 1km (that could be 10,000 people) would be completely vulnerable. Not to mention thieves would love this...someone cast "peace" nearby? I'm going to empty every belt pouch and strongbox I can get to in what, 15min? Just because it's from an old version of the game, that doesn't make it sacrosanct.

From what I calculated, having the RQG rules printed on 20# bond, full color, clear plastic covers front and back, ring bound (FAR better for a rule book), is about $53 with some online printers.

Your ability to distinguish propaganda from allegory is as strong as your spelling skills.

OK I retract that. Peace 3 Points Ranged, Temporal, Nonstackable This spell causes all persons not of Rune Master status within a 1-kilometer radius to lay down their weapons and forget all violence and war. For the duration of the spell, they prefer rather to listen to the wonders of peace and love which the spirits send ringing through their minds That's ridiculous.

Decent video, thanks. I'd really strongly suggest getting a high quality mike for this process, sound is muddy. Looking forward to the next.

I don't think so? Here's the relevant bits of the spell, important parts highlighted: it's temporal, it's not just an effect but has a DURATION. 5min unbuffed. And while otherwise I'd agree with you, the PER ROUND makes it clear that's...every round. Steal Breath 2 Points Ranged, Active, Temporal This spell allows the caster to convert 3 cubic meters of air into 1D6 magic points per round. Every 2 levels of strength added to the spell add another 3 cubic meters of air to be converted into 1D6 more magic points.

Why does the list of sorcery spells seem have a weird bias toward ocean/water use? Tap SIZ but no other stat? "Boon of Kargan Tor"...I guess I'm not quite understanding why the reference to Kargan Tor? It's uncharacteristic of the rest of the spells - ie the hasten spells (oddly specific to boats?) don't refer to Mastakos or anything, and I don't see any special connection between Kargen Tor and sorcery? Most ridiculously overpowered spell in the book (so far): Steal Breath....no this isn't just an asphyxiation spell (that also doesn't seem to require beating a resistance roll from the target so ...automatic slow asphyxiation, I guess?) it ALSO gives the caster 1d6 mp PER ROUND....for 5 minutes. Ie for a 2 point sorcery spell you can get....25d6 mp back. You can easily bump that to 2d6 per round, so 50d6 mp. Did I mention it's NOT capped by your POW (but remaining mp at the end* in excess of your POW are lost)? *of course duration can be extended, too in case you need more time to burn that 50d6 mp.....

More than just "part of the prep". I've been a Glorantha grognard for a long while and while never a navel-contemplating lore-nerd, I think I'm pretty familiar with Gloranthan timelines...and I would shudder to try to accomplish what Jeff has built with that background generation. To me, the intricacy of it is woven so deeply, I couldn't even imagine putting something like that together for, say Seshnela. Frankly speaking, I fear that building that for other regions is going to be a major challenge for the publishing of any subsequent campaign settings set elsewhere.

I really, really hate gamey (or, if you prefer, "narrative") limits like 'once per session'. A session of heavy combat and such can be only a few hours of Glorantha time, while some gameplay sessions could represent multiple seasons of stuff going on. No, for me the mechanical limit has to be IN GAME WORLD CONTEXT, full stop. I fundamentally dislike the suggested pacing of RQG being one adventure per season. That concept's directly into the wastebin in my campaign. Stuff will happen as it happens driven by events...whether that's several sessions in a game week or two, or years pass. My players tend to be driven by the events around them, and rarely does much time go by before someone needs their assistance if they're that competent. Glorantha's just not that dull. I agree with Psullie: you get one try with an augment, etc for a thing. You can't try to be motivated by air, and then if that fails be motivated by fire in some other way, for the same thing. This is going to be an incredibly important point for RQG going forward; too easy access to augments will trivialize them, while too-hard access will make them less relevant to the game than (IMO) they should be. What I'd like to come up with - and it's still very much a mental work in progress - is for players to want husband their best augments for the most pressing thing (the fight against the boss, or the big confrontation, etc) per adventure, with probably 2-3 uses otherwise per player per adventure. How I do that is yet to be determined....initially, I'm thinking of giving each character X points of rune-augment usages each high holy day (essentially filling their pool of usages to max once a year), and then get a subset of those usages back each time they conduct a worship service. Again....mental work in progress. Re augments and NPCs...that's a toughie. For NPCs there's usually no tomorrow, so a potential for abuse vs. characters who naturally husband theirs. I guess I'd make it mechanical somehow, ie roll an extra d20 whenever NPCs roll %; if they roll doubles AND that d20 is in excess of their body hp, that might trigger their check to use an augment the next meaningful/useful moment.

Thus illustrating one of the most fundamental decisions that a RQG dm has to internally decide for themselves, and how their campaign will run: Are the Lunars ACTUALLY bad guys? Sure, there can be levels and levels of "bad", as well as heterogeneity, apostasy, inconsistency, tragedy, and heroic/good guy individuals all as hallmarks of a well-run and subtly managed campaign, but deep down the question is ESSENTIAL. Personally, I believe they *certainly* are the bad guys, but not for the obvious reasons.

Explaining why there are so few half-elves in Glorantha. It's not that Human/Aldryami mixes aren't fecund, it's the fear of the bloody Tree Crabs. They're savage.

I just took them directly from the images. Some people like dark backgrounds? I dunno, it didn't feel kosher lightening it, as it wasn't my artwork.

Thus why the written word is NEVER adequate to recording history. It's static, while reality is ever-changing.