Baulderstone

We RQ6 fans don't have it quite as bad as the MW fans. We still have TDM to put out professional books for us, even if we are sadly losing the cool name. The MW guys don't have that, even in hardcore fans like Tooley are doing their best to make up for it. I don't really feel betrayed, but I am a little confused. It feels like Moon Design quickly pulled back the Runequest name from the successful TDM line without really even having a plan together yet. Runequest has been building a lot of momentum under TDM. They put out three great books in the last year, and it would have been four if MD hadn't killed AiG. That kind of momentum is important to a game line, and while Moon Design does quality work, they have never been great at keeping a tight schedule. My biggest fear about this situation was that Runequest would shift to the kind of slow schedule that HeroQuest has. Considering that four months after they announced their version of Runequest, we are still wavering on what version it is based on makes me think its going to be a long shot for the summer release they were shooting for.

It does make the current RQ 2 Kickstarter seem a little odd. When the plan was to come out with an RQ6-based version next year, I could see the logic in giving people a chance to get a look at RQ2. Now, however, it seems they are currently selling a cleaned up version of RQ2 this year, and plan to sell and even more cleaned up version to us again next year.

Actually, I see this as a good thing for the RQ6 system overall. We were about to lose the core book that all TDM products relied on. I've been hoping that TDM would put out their own core book under a new name to keep the system intact. I'd still like to see the Glorantha book come out for RQ6, but I'd rather have the overall system be healthy if it means losing one setting. Given that TDM originally had Chaosium's blessing to put it out, it would look bad for the new management to bury the hard work that Pete did and that RQ6 fans were waiting for. Whatever happens, I'm glad to see that TDM is going to be able to move forward on their own.

That's part of it, but you can buy PDFs of those supplements as add-ons in the Kickstarter when they unlock.

I think it's because Glorantha existed in Greg's mind before any of the games existed. Any rule system you apply to Glorantha is probably going to fall short of capturing the full "reality" of it. I think both HeroQuest and RuneQuest are great games for Glorantha, but they both are very different in how they represent it. Any Gloranthan game I run involves deliberating on which system best captures what parts of Glorantha I want in the campaign. I have to say I am intrigued to hear that the Gloranthan Sourcebook isn't just a cut down guide. At the time of the Kickstarter, I assumed it was going to be a version of the guide that was more practical to keep in print over the long haul. Of course, I had no idea that the Guide would actually be seeing a second printing either.

It's worth remembering that a lot of early more interested in modelling a fictional reality than making reality bend to what works best for a group of adventuring PCs. Glorantha existed before Runequest, so I expect that it works that way because that is the way that Greg saw Glorantha working. Fortunately, Your Glorantha May Vary. If you want a middle ground, Runequest 6 completely does away with burning Power points in Theism, its equivalent of Divine Magic. It does require priests to go to sacred ground to charge up, but it also has optional rules for being able to set up shrines on the go. You could argue it either way. The temple can be seen as a necessary part of the ritual to channel that power from the god plane.

That's a question that depends on the needs of your campaign. The numbers in HQ only have meaning relative to other numbers you use. It's not like they carry a specific mechanical effect. When you bump up the starting level of masteries for PCs you are creating new levels beneath them. The question is if you need those lower levels. Let's say you want the PCs to be on the level of Superman. If they are going to regularly have conflicts involving regular folk and less powerful supers that you actually want to roll for, then it makes sense to start a few mastery levels higher. However, if the only opposition in your campaign is going to be evil Kryptonians that escaped from the Phantom Zone, then everyone's extra masteries will be cancelling each other out in every conflict. You might just want to set Superman level closer to baseline play in that case. Using your example of anime, if it is one of those anime where everyone happens to be an amazing martial artist of some kind, you have a similar situation. Basically, if you are creating levels beneath the PCs, you want to make sure they are levels that will be used for conflicts in the setting or you are just making numbers higher than they need to be. Of course, maybe the bigger numbers just make the players feel better. Even if the masteries are cancelling out a lot, they just might having it on their sheet. It's like how Japanese console RPGs have have hit points in the thousands and nothing ever does less than 100 damage. They could easily shave a few zeroes off the numbers, but it's an aesthetic choice to make everything seem more epic. There isn't a right or wrong answer. It's just what suits the needs of the setting.

It's just the number of likes you have accumulated over all the posts you have made.

I think a lot of people take the wrong reading on marginal victories. You say it is "not with any massive style" but I don't see that as having anything to do with it. Marginal victories are the exciting ones. Say, you are jumping over a pit. A marginal victory means you make the jump, just manage to grab the far edge, then scrabble to pull yourself up as the rim of the pit crumbles. A complete victory means that you hop over the pit effortlessly as if it was no big deal. Marginal victories are the exciting parts. People love seeing heroes win in the movies, but they want to see them struggle. A marginal victory in a fight means the hero got the snot pounded out him, but came out on top with a clever last minute save. A total victory in a fight is like those boring scenes in the Star Wars prequels where the Jedi wade through ineffectual combat droids.

While I still call it "Parry", I do think of it as a general defense roll myself. Hopefully it will help.

As i understand it, Parry is a combination of using your weapon to make it harder to hit you and moving your body to not be hit. The two really aren't exclusive actions unless you are doing something drastic like a diving Evade action.

It will certainly guarantee that you will never, ever be able to have a civil discussion of any aspect of the game on rpg.net.

Moon Design books have a noticeably smaller font than RQ6, so that might contribute to the smaller font. Of course, I expect a lot of the toolkit options that are one the biggest appeals of the edition for me will be gone too. To be pedantic, that is two actions, as someone is spending an AP to parry as well. :)

Good point. I've already settled on the Hardback, so I might as well throw in on that right away to do my small part in boosting the total.

I haven't pledged yet, only because I'm a bit paralyzed by the large array of add-ons. Based on the reaction so far, it is clear we are going to reach a number of them, so I need to re-think how much I am going to spend.

Yeah, that is the standard Kickstarter way to do it. At the end of the campaign, you get asked to pick your add-ons from the surplus cash. You'll just select x number of hardbacks.

As I have a perfectly good leatherette edition already, I was planning on just going PDF for the errata and extras. I didn't realize it would just be $30 for a hardcover. That might tempt me to go up a step.

I just ignore sexual dimorphism rules. I only use character generation ruled for PCs. I just assign NPCs that stats they need. As PCs tend to be unusual people anyway, I'm not to too concerned if that feel out side the norms for their sex.

I suspect that will be out of my price range, but I'm pleased to see that piece of gaming history will be preserved.

No, this makes perfect sense. Moon Design prints the Gloranthan Classics: Cult Compendium, Borderlands & Beyond, Griffin Mountain and Pavis & Big Rubble. Those are all 2nd Edition RuneQuest. As Moon Design has been keeping the 2nd Edition flame alive all these years, they should be the ones to reprint the core book, much like how The Design Mechanism deserves to be the center of 6th of Edition.

This review makes it seem well worth investing some effort into decoding. There seems to be a lot of quality content in there. I am sure I can get at least my $2.99 worth out of it.

I'm almost tempted to buy this and rely on a combination of rudimentary high school Spanish and Google Translate to get through it.

All right, but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system, public health, and making it easier for you to read foreign role-playing supplements, what have the Romans ever done for us?

Just got a chance to glance at this. This is just dripping with style, Clarence. I am impressed.

It seems like this system may have solved a dilemma I have been having. I'm a big Runequest fan, but I have been intriqued by the Heroquest approach to Glorantha lately. It's left me holding off running anything in Glorantha as I get stuck on what system to use. RD100 seems like a bridge between those two systems. I can run a Glorantha campaign and go full narrative for parts where I want it to be more like Heroquest, but I can also switch the more traditional systems when I want to give it a Runequest feel. With the barrier gone, I will now rely on the fact that the RQ 6 Glorantha rules got pushed back to next year as my excuse for not starting my Glorantha campaign. Actually I have a Shores of Korantia/Monster Island mash up planned now anyway, which is the real reason Glorantha is waiting. It is interesting timing that you come up with this system just as Heroquest and BRP/Runequest are forced into close quarters on this forum.