Sean_RDP

So I want to use this thread to keep track of the game's progress. Estimated Quick Start Rules: January 2016 Estimated Full Low Art Game Release: June 2016* *I have not decided yet how to work a more artful and color version. Either through kickstarter or sales.. I am not really sure. So currently... Design Document - 90% Soul Magic - 90% Hit Points & Hit Locations - 100% Armor, Weapons, & Equipment - 75%

So thank you to Trifletraxor for letting me have this sub forum to talk about Skaerune and Q21. I hope we get some great discussions going on here. So welcome to the Skaerune' forum and place for discussion. Skaerune' will be the first (and hopefully not last) d100 game by Reign Dragon Press. Q21 uses the OpenQuest SRD / OGL, which I found to be a great tool for organizing the game design and changes. Q21 will be significantly different than QpenQuest and the other d100 family members in a few areas, but still familiar to anyone who enjoys this genre of gaming. A Little About Reign Dragon Press I have been tinkering and designing rpgs since I was 10. For a long time it was not serious, which is a shame considering I was growing up at a time when creative people were spawning all manner of games. So finally about 12 years ago I decided to make it a very serious pursuit. Life changes of course and so has the name and types of games I am designing. I am finally in a position in my life to be able really spend time working on these designs. Do not have a web site at the moment, but that should change soon. In the mean time I do have a blog were I ramble on about things. Reign Dragon Press

So this thread is going to be about the default "play" area for Skaerune'. In the main rule book there will be a small description and adventure that I hope will introduce people to the setting in an adequate way. It will also be the first supplement for Skaerune'. After that I will gauge interest from players to see what they want. So a little about Salt Island: Sitting in the middle of the Sea of Woes, Salt Island is famous for being famous. Since the time of the First City, Salt Island has been a battle ground because of it's resources. One of those is the large amount of salt found beneath its dusty surface. Another is the plentiful dark red and orange fruit orchards that dot the island's more hospitable regions. Salt Island has always been a source of great wealth and whoever controlled it held advantage over its rivals. Now the Rakshasa rule the island and the power of the Fourth City has settled here. The salt mines run day and night with both slaves and paid labor. For a slave, the Salt Mines are a death sentence either from exhaustion or the hand of an overseer. Things are not much better for those who are paid to enter the mines because the contracts offered by the Rakshasa Salt Barons do not benefit those who labor. Yet many of those who have been dispossessed by the Glorious Empire have no real choice but to brave the mines. The lucky few who survive are never quite the same. Out in the “Hinters” or Hinterland of the island, the ruins of three other settlements dot the land. They are home to scavengers, cannibals, and dangerous beasts. Worse, they are home to several demon cults who don't give a damn where the Rakshasa come from or their status as “Lords”. Beyond the old settlements are the caves, the flats, and the swamp. Each is deadly in its own way, though it is only beyond these that one finds the most dangerous and fascinating place on the island: Nameless Rock. Touched by those who lived here before the First City, it is a labyrinth of ancient design and sinister intent. Most who brave its dark passages never return, though a few who have returned talk about meeting the Mistress of the Maze. Most think these people are crazy.

Yes, having options for a more traditional campaign is a good thing. Maybe the players do not want to be part of the eternal struggle this go around, which works fine. The world can tumble towards its doom around them, without their help or hindrance. A kingmaker mode might not be a bad idea either.

So the quick start rules are not ever close to being ready for running and playtesting and handing out. However, my cover artist sent an initial sketch of the Rakshasa who will be part of the cover and so, somewhat bored I went ahead and played around some with it. What do you folks think?

That looked like a lot of fun.

The one thing that brought me here was how friendly and polite the forum seems (and still seems). I like that as I don't have to weed through much nonsense to get to good content, both Chaosium and non Chaosium. I hope things stay that way, as a person who enjoys role playing, d100 games, and as prospective self-publisher. For me so far so good, but I admit that I have not been a member long and not active as long as others. However, I have been a member of the human race during its earliest forays into the Internet and I can say this place is a breath of fresh air. My only suggestion would be to create a forum where all d100 publishers and players can discuss issues that involve all of us and for Chaosium, perhaps a Suggestion box forum where people can drop ideas to them and once a week (or a month or whenever they want) they can drop in, check out the ideas and contact the idea giver directly. Sort of an informal submissions forum, VERY INFORMAL lol. Otherwise it seems great. Oh my something specific for artists? I dunno, just ideas.

Also an examination of the sword Stormbringer and other such artifacts as characters in the game in their own right. Possibly even as far as player characters who can help or hinder the puny mortals who pick it up to swing around?

I think I would combine d100 with some narrative Indie gaming ideas. Characters would not start out as new adventurers ever. So you could begin life as a beggar, but by the time of the game you are have at least a year of "the road" under your belt. Character generation would also be cooperative. One player would create a character who is the focus of the game, at least for a part of the campaign. The other characters would be related to that character in a way that was meaningful and gave the entire troupe a reason to be together, A growth mechanic, providing improvement and new abilities would replace traditional experience. It would also introduce new wrinkles to the current relationships and allow for a change in focus character from chapter to chapter or book to book. It would also allow the GM to up the stakes as the campaign progressed. It would need to include a multiverse aesthetic, if the characters moved forward into different time periods / universes they would need to retain their flavor and relationships. The game would and should be firmly young kingdoms, but with a strong appendix on Dreamthief's Daughter and Skrayling Tree adventures, pending how well it sold which would allow full blown expansions into that territory. We live in a post "We love it when no one wins" world even though Supernatural (TV Show) has not figured that out yet. There may be some fatigue with such a depressing and nihilistic approach. So I think you would need to sell the game and ideas on the notion that although no one ever wins, they never lose either. The struggle is eternal and it is the struggle that matters, that defines you, and defines how posterity (readers and players) will see you. Yet with all of that, still a firm and functional fantasy rpg. Any such licensed game would definitely need more than a nod from Mr. Moorcock, I dare say it would need a little direction or input from him.

It adds some granularity to the character creation (as well as some fun bits) and I think extending it to higher power characters will make it work smoothly. Almost Traveller like, but maybe no chance of death.

Each city will come with its own unique brand of... mythic characters. So far the Second City will have Elves and Dwarves. The Rakshasa are not "myth" characters but they are are related to the culture of the Fourth City (Indo-asian). The First City I have not decided on quite yet. The Third City will be dynastic Egypt (not Ptolymeic) and some Arabian and African elements. So ghoouls may well be "Mythic" creatures as opposed to the traditional undead. I just did not want another game where elves and dwarves were Tolkien knock offs or shoe horned into the world because of tradition. The dwarves will be kind of jerks, loners, and not pleasant beings to run into.

So here are some beasties from Skaerune, sans art. (Art is a long way off at this point). There are a few system specific bits: AUR = Aura (specific to Skaerune, not Q21 in general) Soul Magic = Divine Magic Spiral Magic = Spirit, Battle, Common magic. Would love to hear what people think. Neither of these is a playable PC race (though if the game became popular enough I could see that being a thing). The Elf is one of the Mythical beings created by the interactions of the people and the world itself. The Rakshasa are the latest power on the world, ruling the Glorious Empire from the Fourth City. elf.pdf rakshasa.pdf

Experience is pretty essential for life, right? We experience things and (hopefully) learn from our triumphs and mistakes. It works the same way in role playing games because you are a person (or robot) and people (and robots) grow through learning. Even if that learning takes place at the business end of a blaster. I mean, who doesn't watch Solo and Greedo and think "Yep, I am gonna shoot foist EVERY TIME!". I suspect that comes out of he grading system found in many war games. (Again, don't know that for sure.) I liked the experience system in d100 games, starting with Runequest when I played that. At the time I was playing though, experience was a big deal. As gaming has progressed, experience seems to be less and less relevant as campaigns become shorter and shorter or gaming becomes a series of one shots. This is not a bad thing, but can call into question time spent on designing the experience system of a game (or blogging about it... maybe). I still think an easy to follow but meaningful experience system is important, as is a system that allows for the creation of characters at a certain power level. So in essence you need 3 experience systems. Traditional medium to long term experience system that helps characters develop over time. A faster system that gives the feeling of change over a short number (2-4) of sessions A Jump Start system tied to character generation that lets you create an experienced character of a certain power level. Keeping number three in mind I am considering using a Life Path style character generation and having extended life events for higher power levels. Unlike a class based system you just can't pick a level and go.

Oh, I like that. I had never thought of it like that. Very cool

I like that. I love the way the possession works. Just one of them would make for an entire night of fun.

No statistic has been as ill defined from the very beginning of role playing as the Charisma stat. I think this is true for most games. In some ways I imagine it derived from "leadership" scores that many units or generals have in table top war games. I do not know this for sure of course, but I surmise this was the case. No one seemed to use it correctly and at least early on among the games I played it lacked real emphasis in design. When I began playing Runequest and found that the role playing stat had been replaced with an appearance stat and now I could role play however I wanted, I was quite pleased. It held a great deal of appeal to me. To say that many years later when I noted CHA creeping into d100 games, I was a bit baffled.Why was this happening? Why were designers making this choice for a stat no one cared about before anyway. Was it the sudden use in d20 games, which revived CHA as a meaningful stat? Despite my confusion, I was forced to reconsider some kind of stat that encompassed an element of personality and decided that personality was just what I was looking for. In Q21, PER / Personality is an important stat. It is a measure of force of personality and presence of the character. How the character chooses to use this depends on what skills that they choose.Those skills are listed under Communication skills. But what about appearance? On the one hand no one can help the face they are born with and we have to make the most of it. Often a strong personality overcomes societal preferences, but is there something useful in having an actual appearance stat? I do not want to put in a stat to just have one and I want to not be on the fence about it.Right now Q21 does not have any appearance stat and I am not inclined to add it in, even though I have a great deal of nostalgia for it.

Thanks!

So I want to talk a little about Skaerune. I feel that a strong setting is an expectation of any d100 game, which is not a bad thing. The problem though is that the days of the truly powerful setting has passed. It is not as much a draw to players or at least ones I interact with. With a few exceptions, it is more difficult to use a setting as a selling point (1). The typical game master is going to run his or her own game anyway and may or may not use setting information anyway. Added to this is the small amount of room that can be spent (2) on setting in a given manual means that your setting has to come strong and be interesting and usable even when its bare bones. So I decided I wanted to combine the mythical fantasy feeling, the cosmic nihilism, and features from traditional fantasy. My old college adviser and mentor described the United Staets as a stew, not a melting pot. I don't want Skaerune to be a stew even though it will have some disparate bits that did not begin life together. The Cosmos acknowledges that many worlds exist, but they are distant and relevant only in their existence. It drops ingots of civilizations into a barren Earth - like world, where slowly but surely they begin to come together and identify more with this world then wherever they came from. Now that I think about it, I guess it will be a stew, or an artifact that is a unified whole, but the various ores are still visible on the surface. And it needed a antagonist worthy of the name. The Rakshasa (3) are definitely the new power in town. While a bit sadistic as a race, they are not inherently what we might call evil as much as we could say they embrace chaos as a way of life. At least aspects of it. As rulers of the Fourth City and an ever growing empire, they are trying to create their own strange order on the world. Intelligent, inhuman, and physically strong they bring a pov that is alien to the world but in some ways alien to many players. L8R SMH

Yes I think that is great. Maybe a quest within a quest. You need to get the right head of Demogorgon to unlock the Sun Tomb of Phage Everdying.

This is just an introduction to the blog. I have been designing games since I was 10 when I decided D&D was good, but could be better. Once I was introduced to RuneQuest and BRP, I felt the system did a great job with what it was trying to do. It was only years later that I began thinking about what I would I change if given the chance. So here we are. I feel like this community will be invaluable for helping me achieve the kind of game I want to make. lL8R SMH

I would say all characteristics would be a min of 18, even appearance to add in that awe affect. So no I do not think it needs changing. Looking over this and not having seen any others, this is my thought process: 1. Who is supposed to fight this being? Are they supposed to win or have a reasonable chance to win? 2. I would line the characters and break them down into "Strong" "Healthy" "Dexterous" "Smart" etc... and put them in rough order within their columns. Your most powerful being in each category has an X (+/- 5) In that ability. That way you have a baseline to judge Characteristics. OR you could break down the various such beings into "Cosmic, Near Cosmic, Potent, and Supermortal" and then figure out the ranges for each. I think it would be a good way to keep all of them in the same really powerful compared to the rank and file. Deep magic actually sounds perfect. That would make sense for the Gaze effects.

I would think such a cosmic being should have some better skills, agreed. Unless a being is well known for a weakness of some sort, skills of 100% as a base seem to make sense. At least in things like knowledge but generally everything. That would be my suggestion for a baseline. From there you differentiate the various beings with skills over 100. If you keep the HP low, perhaps such a being is invulnerable except to certain metals or pre cast spells? Cold Iron or something would work. Perhaps some kind of regeneration? I am assuming Deep Magic is the Psionics equivalent? That could work, but 1st Ed. Psionics was very powerful. Would he have to forego attacks to use the Hypnosis effect? I think he might be able to use the tail attack and the Hypnosis effect.

This sounds very good. There is a whole generation of pnp gamers who are "Runequest, what?" and it is nice that they will get a chance to be introduced to some classic gaming.

So it is going to be an exact reprint of the original? At least that what it seems like.

It looks great. I am tempted to hop on that KS.