RosenMcStern

The problem with monographs is that they do sell the the main RPG market. Basically it's preaching to the choir. The people who buy the monograqphs are already Chaosium fans.

Yeah. You just hit the spot atgigey.

That's what I mean about the monographs. To get one, a person has to go to the Chaosium website. I didn't even know that there were RQ3/BRP monographs until I read about them in a message board, and I'm a longtime RQ fan. The chances of those monographs selling to an average gamer are next to nil. There is really not much sense from a business standpoint in producing an RPG product and not making it available except at the company website. At least not for a small company like Chaosium.

Unless the company is relying on indies to provide the quantity of supplements needed. That's why I always advocated third party support (even before providing it myself).

And this is why we stil sell via OBS despite the higher fees. They are our (the indies) medium to reach the main audience, the ones who did not hear about us before.

Aha! But that's part of the beauty of it! This explains why physical runes are prevalent in 2nd Age Glorantha, but (virtually) unheard-of in the 3rd Age...

This was my idea on the subject, too, but it looks like the next iteration of HQ could introduce physical runes (or at least something similar) in the third age. This puts an end to the GAG concept of physical runes as a God Learner construct, which did not make so much sense, mythically speaking, to be honest. I have not got the details about this, as I did not attend conventions last year, but since Loz is involved in the rulemaking process along with less sensible individuals (you know who you are if you are reading this list, and luckily you are not) I hope they will not screw everything up.

I suggest we wait until we have more information about runes in HeroQuest before proposing other approaches to Rune Magic.

But then you must have a way to physically create a Rune from scratch, or else the overall quantity of runecasters would decrease with time, as runes left over from Godtime are used up by casters.

Given the mecha stats presented in this thread; was a framework used to match hit points to mass (besides BRP size)?

No. Just SIZ=tonnage given in "official" Toei stats, and HP=SIZ (with location HPs consistent with general HP)

Is there currently anything for BRP that is similar to Mekton mecha construction templates?

See Kloster's post in the other thread.

I am tempted to develop a construction system framework for BRP. Any ideas?

Would I be duplicating existing effort and does a project already exist that I can collaborate with?

Well, in fact I am planning something similar. The stats for UC Mechas are already in the making though not published, I want to run a mecha game at Tentacles. But I have not created any "generic" rules at the moment, just used published stats. So you wouldn't be duplicating anything. But what you write could be re-used later.

Chaosium have to grant approval of a license before a 3rd party can publish a BRP book - I even asked their permission before doing Uncounted Worlds and in some cases they need to take a more active role than that and have a definite part to play in fully distribution 3rd party products.

This appears to be why the Deadworld project was stymied and, on a more positive note, RosenMcStern has indicated that he and Chaosum negotiated a specific license for Pete Nash's Rome. So they have definite part to play in enabling 3rd party support and lets hope that Rome is the first of many.

In fact, the license is never for a single game but for the right to use the system and the logos. It even states that the publisher must produce at least one supplement per year, so everyone's wish to see more third party products will certainly come true, as the license forces me to produce three more supplements. Not that I dislike the idea, mind me

That's a question for Chaosium, but at a guess - they don't like the cut that RPGNow / DriveThru (actually a single entity called One Book Shelf, as the two merged some time back but continue to trade under both brands) now take of PDF sales, hence not expanding the range they originally made available via that outlet. Many other small publishers have also not liked OBS's terms and have gone elsewhere.

More correctly they have self-assembled an alternate publisher called YourGamesNow which sells less but takes a smaller cut of the profits. And there are other shops appearing. That's the Internet, baby.

Chaosium's second reason I would guess stems from the secondary purpose of the monographs - which is that in addition to making money for selling them, because they are exclusive to Chaosium's website, purchasers have to go to Chaosium's website and thus may buy something else direct from them. And Chaoisum makes more on direct sales.

I guess (well, maybe I hope) there is another reason. Since Chaosium reserves the right to publish third party BRP stuff on its own via its web site and regular distribution channel (and in fact will do that massively), if the BRP line was present on OneBookShelf shops in Chaosium's product page, then the licenser would compete with the licensee on OBS, a situation that both could find counter-productive.

When BRP Rome is ready for a preview (i.e. soon) we'll uncover more details about its distribution channels, but the PDF will be present on at least four e-shops (counting OneBookShelf as one single shop).

Reduce it one die step? So if your melee damage bonus is +1d6, your missile weapon bonus is +1D4?

It's a good idea, and I like the "2H weapons get 1 step up in the db scale" idea, too. But isn't it too complicate for the average player?

It's certainly more realistic. But how do you halve it for missile weapons?

Allowing the storage of multiple Fixed Magnitude spells.

Yup. You should be able to cast a non-progressive spell more than once per adventure. Possibly they meant it but did not phrase it well.

Multiplying the amount of divine magic that can be stored in dedicated POW. E.g. an acolyte can store 2 Mag of divine magic per 1 Dedicated POW, a priest 3 points and so on. (You could make an argument that this is actually some sort of legendary ability.)

I would rather go with a +x to Dedicated POW, gained as a legendary ability. This will be included as a Legendary Ability for Teutonic Knights (or Knights Templar) in Stupor Mundi 2, but it will not be available before the end of 2009 (Rome takes precedence).

Dedicated POW. This is a far better mechanic than I first thought.

On the contrary, I liked it the first time I read the description. It needs tweaks like everything in MRQ, but the basic mechanics is good.

Non-reusable divine magic. At first I went back to RQ3 because I thought it was silly having priests needing to re-sacrifice after each spell casting.

We have been playing like this for 15 years now, and it works fine. Only difference is that a priest has easier access to a "recharge" for his spells (the discount you mentioned).

A really good contribution, Deleriad. You are right in both saying that Rune Magic does not fit Glorantha well as it is written now (messy rune associations, too much relevance of runes as items), and saying it can portray it better than RQ2/RQ3 potentially.

I would also remind everyone that in MRQ the generally-available magic system is no longer spirit magic, but Folk Magic, which is made of very simple cantrips limited to 2 point spells at most. The kind of spells a barmaid might know.

Finally, I have one question. If this is the relationship between magic, runes and the deities, then rune/spirit magic is the real measure of one's degree of identification with the gods and spirits (affinity in HeroQuest). Where does Divine Magic (which is not tied to runes) fit in this kind of model?

This yahoo! group contains some interesting ideas and polls. I have not worked more about it for many months, but some of the ideas expressed are rather interesting.

d100glorantha : Glorantha (Third Age) with D100

Frogspawner, Loz is not advertising anything. There are such things as Non-Disclosure Agreements in the gaming industry, and he should not discuss the work he is doing for Mongoose (or Issaries) in a public forum. Which does not mean he cannot listen to our advice if it is sensible.

I do not know the proposed rule mechanics for runes in the new HeroQuest system as I missed all conventions last year, but seeing HeroQuest and RuneQuest converge more would not displease me.

I think that the ideas for the physical rune magic rules are good, however for me, they break the feel of Glorantha and are not an improvement on spirit/battle magic for a Gloranthan setting. They also undermine the original rune connection of divine magic.

In fact, physical runes can be a good idea in some settings. Next episode of Stupor Mundi will contain a Futhark rune adaptation of Mongoose Rune Magic.

Nevertheless, the new HeroQuest rules will have a rune-based approach. I hope they really fixed what is wrong in the original approach.

Yes. There is nothing that scares players more than picking up D6s from all around the game table while saying "It is for the damage modifier." It improves PC stealth and diplomatic skills big time.

I am currently pondering about finding distribution channels for physical books in Europe. The problem is that I am afraid that shops are experiences the hardship of the financial crisis and are shutting down. One of the points of sale where Stupor Mundi is available on the shelves recently turned into an "Internet only" shop. So, even if I agree about having more BRP on the shelves is a good thing, we must first determine whether this strategy is viable.

Or because I have a section detailing Roman profanity?

Ahem, in fact that section is a bit too anatomically detailed. I'll have to censor it. :innocent:

Just kidding.

I do find it curious though, that even it a mythical western setting, (with giant bat winged heads, etc) the idea of playing as Native Americans simply isn't an option? Unless your are at least half white? I assume playing as a female will be also very limited?

I do not think this is a problem for a good roleplaying group. I have given some ideas about how to mix social groups that despise each other in Stupor Mundi and will certainly provide more hints in Stupor Mundi 2 (the problem has already arisen during playtesting).

I do not know how the terminology problem is handled in Aces High, but one way it can be handled is to use a "politically correct" term for ethnic minorities in the text, and let the NPCs use the offensive words, i.e. say "Native americans" in the text and "Red skins" when a characters is speaking. As for finding a good reason why your character would get along with an "Amerind", well, I recall the US Army used lots of native scouts during the Indian wars.

Looks like Charlie is becoming serious about supporting BRP. What wonderful news!

If you are familiar with RQ3, you can also opt to use the MRQ SRD (the Luxury edition downloadable from this site is a good compendium, and it is free to use under the OGL). All three magic systems are usable although they require some tweak (see the MRQ Wiki for suggested corrections), and the enchanting system is one of the easiest and more playable I have ever found in a D100 system. Unfortunately, the rules for Shamanism are in the Cults of Glorantha vol. 2 book, which is NOT free. A shame because they are good and not too Gloranthan.

Are we talking about Rome or something new here?

Chaosium license requires third parties to publish one supplement per year, it is not limited to a one-shot supplement. So we are talking about both Rome and something new that will appear next year.

One thing I have noticed with the new Gloranthan works, is that Mongoose has failed to capture the subtle depth and essence of the Glorantha I originally saw defined in early works such as Cults of Prax. The new Mongoose works now feel like general contemporary fantasy.

True to a limited extent. The first books were a bit generic-flavoured although full of nice game ideas, but when Jeff K, Loz and Shannon Appel dropped in the Old Way was restored.

Hmmm, I would go for another explanation, instead. Most superobots created in the 80's used a "Final" weapon, i.e. finished off their enemies always with the same weapon, unlike Mazinger did. Notable examples: Daitarn, Zambot, Darutaniasu, God Sigma, Golion (Voltron), Goshogun, Trider. Some of these weapons were energy blasts, some were swords, some were a mix of this. And all shared the same characteristic: the opponent had no opportunity to fight back, it just stood there and was vaporized/bisected/quadrisected. Voltron is possibly a bit different in that it put up a bit of a fight with its sword, but that's all.

I think the point here is not that using such weapons require a powerup time, it is rather that the weapon is "one shot", i.e. once the superobot activates it, it burns out most of its energy in a short time, so it must be sure to kill the enemy mecha with just a single blow or it will not be able to use the weapon again until the next combat. This actually means that the opponent must have been disabled or stunned somehow with inferior weapons before the final one is drawn.

So you could try the following trick: assuming Golion/Voltron has 200 PP, it costs it, say 100 PP to activate the sword and 10 PP per blow to strike with it (just 5 PP per round to keep it active) while the other weapons are just 1-2 PP per round to use. This way if it does draw the sword too early and cannot kill the robobeast with the first two or three blows, it might be easily forced to retreat in order to recharge.

More extreme example: Darutaniasu has 150 PP, and it costs it 5 PP per turn to use its steel blade (1d10+db) and 80 PP to use its flaming sword (10d10+db) per single attack. It is easy to guess which weapon is best used to kill, but better wait until the blow cannot miss!

Well, a bit costly (if compared to Mongoose's, which is essentially a zero-cost license), but agreeable. I myself have renegotiated something.

(It's a built-in restraint on marketing the BRP support that is out there. I got my $250 last summer, and that's all, folks. It all goes to Chaosium now, and they market how they see fit).

Since I have little economic incentive to talk up the setting, I have only done so in "free" ways. There are AtA threads on this site that talk about it in fair detail, as well as a review in the reviews section.

Another good reason why third party support would (no, will) provide better support to BRP. There's no incentive to the writer to promote his stuff, and if Chaosium does not do it by itself (and due to time constraints they do not do it fast, in any case) it is less likely that the author does promote that much.

This is showcasing a problem that no one has ever raised (well, except frogspawner once).

Chaosium is not "pushing" BRP products through some channels. It does not sell BRP related products on DriveThru/RpGNow. It does not sell BRP Monographs on Amazon or other e-shops. As a result, I am afraid that Ashes, to Ashes has received less enthusiasm than it deserved.

This on the other hand leaves more room for third party publishers, as we do not compete with Chaosium itself on the e-shops. Please note that with the OGL we are forced to compete with WotC or Mongoose themselves on their terrain, as they sell via OneBookShelf, too. I think this was an intentional move by Chaosium, suggesting that they rely more heavily on third parties for BRP than they do on CoC. But the final effect is that monographs are somehow underrated in their appeal to the public, which in some cases is a real shame. It also means that the average product is a bit more costly than it should, as independent publishers have higher printing costs than companies. Luckily we have PDFs too.

Yeah, that's just covered by the rules: using a skill in a way that puts you at a stake is worth an XP check, casual use is not. The rules are clear about this, whether you let your players abuse them is a matter of your style as a GM. Typical abuse in my campaign was casting Disruption at a fleeing enemy to raise POW

On the other hand, the point about increasing one's Stealth skills by killing 17.5 ocs still stands - and it isn't covered by the rules.

I was just hoping for some encouraging advise. Oh, and I'm technically not a newbie... played the original RQ & Elfquest, been playing CoC for over 20 years, and I was on the playtest for BRP for a couple months (with a different ID).

But, since you are not a newbie, what's your need for encouraging advice? Many members here do not have 20 years' experience with BRP-related systems. Shuldn't you be giving advice to them?

If BRP wants a bigger piece of the pie, these are the sort of things we should be prepared for.

Now this is good advice. It looks like you were more useful to us than we were to you.

There is a simple rule for this (p. 224): firing while engaged in melee is Difficult, but the point blank bonus offsets the penalty. So your character is at exactly the same chance to hit as before, not counting the -20% for shooting into melee.

Of course you must describe the situation to make your judging look fair: describe the fact that he is approaching the monster (an Agility roll or Dodge could be an idea, as suggested), emphasize the fact that the monster is not a static target, and that there is a weak spot between the scales/crests/whatever that protect the monster, but keeping the gun barrel aimed at it while the creature is flaying his friend is hard. Then have him roll against his Combat Reflexes (Firearms skill) to shoot exactly at the moment the gun is touching the moving weak spot. Then give a bonus to damage (autmatic impale or ignore armor) if the roll succeeds.

In any case, the penalty should be bigger than the bonus, or else your players could turn it into an established tactics: "Ok, who is grappling with the Bogeyman this time, while the others go point blank against it?"

According to his thread on the RPG.net forum, his wife bought him

D&D4E.

IANAL, but isn't this a good justification to ask for a divorce in most courts?