Sean_RDP

Heh maybe it is time for the world's adventurers to me Garleb the Notorious, a feared wizard who in no way resembles Bargle the Infamous lol.

Heh maybe it is time for the world's adventurers to me Garleb the Notorious, a feared wizard who in no way resembles Bargle the Infamous lol.

I do not think there are enough old school space opera RPGs. In any system.

Lore Item: Skaerune' means "Rune in the Sky" i.e. the vortex that opens up when a new city is summoned forth

I am pretty sure that passage refers to the kidnapping of elves that have freely allied themselves with the Empire and taking them away to be sacrificed. Any other interpretation is the fevered imaginings of rebels and anarchists.

Do you think it was a case of design or execution? Honestly I would find it hard to be too critical as high level play in any RPG was less than a decade old. In my experience attaining Rune Lord / Priest / Master status was definitely a goal to be obtained, but seemed very end game to my mind. Though that could have easily been my rpg world view and not any deficiency in the rules or setting. It is much easier to point to a level (15-20 or what have you) than it is to say "you must have 75 or 100% in these skills/things" and a lucky trollkin can still cut your head off. Still a more manageable and reasonable route to Rune Master (not easier) is certainly a selling point for the new system.

That moment when you see a thread and think "Hey that looks cool" and then you read it and you are like "Oh hell no, not getting into that one." lol

Looks Good

So before I got too far, for me RPGs are like beer; I have rarely met one I won't encourage people to play. Because I have played (and drank) more than my fair share of games (beers) over the years.* Jeff talks a lot about system in his response, but system is largely irrelevant, right? After all there is Hero Quest and frankly you could convert Rolemaster to play in Glorantha if you wanted. So system is irrelevant.. except... except in this case. Rarely, in my opinion, has there been a system and setting that went this well together. I think this was a strength of Chaosium's Big Three: Cthulhu 1920s, Stormbringer,, and Runequest, but of a few other rpg systems and their settings do the same (AD&D and Greyhawk, Shadowrun and Seattle for instance). So more than just having the updated original vision for the system to play on Glorantha, you have a synthesis that is really unique between the world and the dice. It is the equivalent of listening to a song or play or epic poem in it's original language, the way it was meant to be heard or read or sung. BRP/d100 is not the language of Glorantha, Runequest is. So to be able to "sing" the song of Glorantha in it's original language is an experience everyone who really enjoys role playing should have. Though I suspect in this case it is equivalent to finding new syntax and vocabulary for an old language so that the poetry sounds even better. Time will tell if the updated system works as well as the previous versions, but I suspect we won't have much to gripe about. *Note: FATAL, Synnibarr, and Old Rasputin are the two systems and one beer I refuse to ever try or tray again.

Honestly that is the part of a new RQ that I am looking forward to the most: the new scenarios and campaign books.

Awesome. I think that works out pretty well

I can see where that might be something people would have liked, but while the magic system seems pretty basic, it falls in line with what I can only imagine was an idea make magic special and powerful but not all powerful? I dunno. In my mind that direction lies Rolemaster, which I love, but I don't need that many spells to blow someone to bits. But then I am a less is more kind of person.

Oh yeah, I did not note that but it is an MP cost and then a POW vs POW Resistance roll against each creature targeted. "Balance" is a great question. By tradition, neutrals either follow along with "Good" (everyone hates undead) or can choose to follow the Good or Evil method as they wish. I would vote for the latter personally. But it would be a choice they have to stick with.

I had something like this in mind. Magic World Turning Undead Creature (MP)/ Alliegance Skeleton (1) Zombie (1) Ghoul (2) Ghast (2) Wight (3) Wraith (3) Vampire (4) 1 to 25 - - - - - - - 26 to 50 T1 T - - - - - 51 to 75 T T T T T T - 76 to 90 D2 D T T T T T 91 D D D D D D D MP Costs are PER creature Turn is used for those who have allegiance to Light; those with allegiance to Shadow can “Control” the undead, taking temporary control. Destroy is used for those who have allegiance to Light; those with allegiance to Shadow can 'Dominate' the undead, taking permanent control.

So your ability to turn undead would be tied to how deeply aligned to the Light you were? That makes a ton of sense to me.

re: Clerics I would think the harder job would be to come up with rules for turning Undead. I mean POW vs. POW makes sense, but how do "get" the ability? How do you create a level system where a more experienced "Cleric" turns Undead better than a lower level one does?

So a few updates here on Runed Worlds. I have named the intro mod Vega, Two Stars. Just from the early outline I am putting together Runed Worlds is shaping up to be a universe full of shenanigans. That is good because Skaerune' is so serious it is good to have different feels for different games. Thankfully I do not have to make too many changes to the basic system, just removing "magic" and adding Liminal powers.

I really don't think the obsession with "more spells" has ever really developed a campaign or made a system better. Though it would be thematic for Greyhawk in the sense that the Council of 8 gave their names to many D&D spells. (Bigby, Mordenkainen etc...) I think, though I do not know for sure, that each corresponded to a type of magic found in D&D. (Evocation, Alteration, etc..) and if I were going to alter / enhance Greyhawk, that is how I would line up the spells. Almost like Houses of Magic, each with it's own rules for getting in. As for Clerics and Druids? Cleric abilities can be pretty limited really: Heal/Harm; Bless/Bane; Consecrate/Desecrate.. They can be individual "spells" or simply based off a POWx5 (or 4) roll. Druids get fewer "spells" but get to shapeshift. As an aside, I would think Mystara, the world of the B and X and CM books for ole D&D would make for a nice Magic World conversion. It has a darker feel in many ways, less political AND Basic D&D alignment system is built on Law, Neutrality, Chaos - a perfect segue for Magic World's allegiance system. Plus only four "professions" for humans and the demi-humans can have their magical powers.

Where are you going? How long do you want to take getting there? Where do you need to start to theoretically get there in the (play) time allotted? Those are the basic questions when it comes to experience and every game answers it differently. I would not mind a hand reference that suggests power / skill levels for playing one off adventures vs. short campaigns vs. long campaigns. Though that is something players and GMs can make for themselves easily enough.

I would think for Channelers, any form of Divine Magic would do the trick. For the Sorcerers, I would actually look outside BRP to the D&D 5e Warlock, with its Invocations OR, and this is just a suggestion based on what I have done with Skaerune', make it very simple. Sorcery can do these things: Harm Make a Thing Make a Living/Unliving/Mechanical Thing Summon a Thing Protect Me (The Caster) You use 1 Sorcery skill, that skill lets you do minor magic for no MP (or 1 MP) and then allows you to make use of one of the forms, (Harm, Make a Thing etc...) with the power of the spell being based on how many MP you put into it. Spectacular things happen if you crit or if you fumble. Very open ended, requires the GM to be good ad adjudicating costs (though a little prep work allows you to make a chart) and may take a traditional player a minute to wrap their head around how much flexibility they have, but over all I feel it should fit what you are seeking.

Skaerune' Thursday 3.29.2017So Salt Mine Blues v1.1 will be out next Thursday. Trying to incorporate a few corrections and changes. Nothing too significant quite yet. I have an artist re-making the maps but that will be in update v1.2. At the moment I am working on the cities and their cultures, both the background and the skills and Life Path events for each, which will be unique to a given city. I am hoping to have a developer diary in the next few weeks to talk more about how and why and what when it came to making Skaerune'. A short one today, so I will wish you good gaming.SMH

Radical idea: Instead of using scores in Order Balance Chaos as positives, use them as negatives. Zo a Order score of 0 means the character is generally devoted to Order, 50 means they can take or leave it, 100 means that have really torqued the forces of Order off. So as the character gains points, the hand of Fate begins notice that they are falling away or avoiding the winds of Fate so one force or another will snap them back. Say every time a character gains 10 Points in O/B/C this generates an Incident or Foe designed to turn them back. That is a very basic idea and (obviously) needs fleshing out but using the current system. Could also do something like, there is 100 points total, each starts with 0 or 10 points or some such, with normal gaining and losing. Yet each time the character goes over 50 points in one of them then that triggers the Incident or Foe.

So Thursday are going to be the update days for Skaerune'. Maybe all the Q21 games. I have updated the News section of the website (http://reigndragonpress.weebly.com/news.html) and the FB page for Reign Dragon Press (https://www.facebook.com/reigndragonpress/) Here is the update Skaerune' Update: 3.23.2017 Thursday is going to be our official update day for news on Skaerune'. There is not much news this week, but we wanted to kick things off and get the ball rolling as they say. Downloads: So in a little over a week we have triple digit downloads from the Drive Through RPG, plus a few from the BRP Central forums. We are well past my minimum number for doing the full game and halfway to my goal. So I consider that a win. If you have friends who have not downloaded it or a gaming group looking for a one shot, make sure you let them know about Salt Mine Blues. Errors & Corrections: Even after 18 months and a fantastic editor, there were some small gaffs in version 1.0. Next week we will have and updated version of the PDF and anyone who has downloaded Salt Mine Blues will be told about the new version. One thing I want to do, but not next week, is update the maps to something a little better. Maybe by April we will have that done. Work on Skaerune' core book: Skaerune' will be a single book with everything the players and GM need. There will be supplements but the main rule book will be all that you need. The first Dev Diary should be out next week, assuming I have time to write it. Remember, if you wish to play Salt Mine Blues I can assure the mod author is happy to run it for you, in person or over the Internet. SMH

I think CoC offers a model for this actually. Once a character starts down the road to madness, he or she is forever on that road. There is an inevitability to their path. Elric was constantly pursued by the hand of Fate. Any redux of Stormbringer should embody that idea. The characters are pawns whether they like it or not and in a longer campaign they need to rise to the occasion, manipulating the three forces to their own ends as much as possible. Yet at every step, even if they try to find some piece, Fate drops something in their path they cannot avoid. And yes, role playing requires a social contract and games like CoC or Stormbringer require a certain acknowledgement of the parameters of the Universe. Ironically, even though widely random starting professions / lives seems unfair from a game POV, from a narrative POV it totally makes sense. As long as the game itself gives the noble and the rat cacther the same chance to be great, I think it makes the game fair.

So I will be talking a little bit about the second Q21 game I am working on, called Runed Worlds. I will have a small PDF that introdcuces the ideas of Runed Worlds up tomorrow. I will be giving it the same Free Intro and module treatment I gave Skaerune' with Salt Mine Blues. For now the best I can describe Runed Worlds is, a Heavy Metal / Lensman inspired dystopian Space Opera. With a ton of truly alien races to play.