Pentallion

It makes for really fun combats. And between two highly skilled combatants, combat is always dangerous, even if one is 200% and the other 140%

Didn't replace it with anything. We just don't reduce skills above 100%. Crits and specials are figured on the skill percentages. Precedent? Have you actually played any kind of adventure for any length of time? Pick up any 8 or so adventures for publication, go through them, add up all the power crystals available. It's an inevitable consequence of playing RQ that your characters rack up tons of power crystals. One thing I like about Gonn Orta's is that their economy is based on power crystals. It's a great way to dump off excess crystals by buying magic items in exchange.

Actually, it only depends on if you give out the power crystals the official adventures hand out like candy.

I'm his GM and I was annoyed at the obviously broken Sword Trance (which I have since house ruled only doubles the natural skill of the caster) because it makes literally EVERYTHING that doesn't carry dispell magic to be pointless. Especially with the "reduce skills over 100%" stupidity rule. I house ruled that BS the hell outta my game as well. Imagine: CWIM: With Sword Trance as written it is absurd that Cwim drove off Argrath. 3 or 4 Humakt easy could have taken it out. Cwim should have died centuries ago. He can't hit the Humakt with any attacks except spit and any Dodge skill at all will buy time. yes Cwim can dispel, but Argrath teleports the Humakt in round one and Cwim won't be dispelling that round. With truesworded GS's, bladesharps, strength spells, all standard Humakt artillery, and even a simple Lhankor Mhy philosopher to cast Boon of Kargan Tor for an extra 2d6, Cwim goes down hard, fast and absurdly easily. No, that spell and that rule are both stupid, ill conceived and broken. Arguments you can dispel them don't hold water. Giants can't dispel them. So many things can't dispel them. The eco system of the world of Glorantha simply cannot exist in the same universe as Sword Trance and skills over 100% as written. However, make Sword Trance like the old Arrow Trance and toss out the skills over 100% rule and the game is fun, balanced and the terrors remain terrors, the giants remain gigantic, etc. None of this is even munchkinnery, it's just Jeff and others refusing to admit they made a small mistake in an otherwise fantastic game and not fixing it. So I fix it myself. Meanwhile, if I DO have a dispel magic available and I see a Humakti, I don't really care what spell he's cast on his sword, it obviously has to go down.

Because the death rune tatoos and an obviously magicked sword don't blatantly give it away....

Well, that definitely makes me want to change my plans. Instead of working on a past project in the Rubble, I think I'll shelve that until BR comes out. Instead I'll work on some stuff I've been wanting to do with Fronela.

I was working from the opposite direction: patiently waiting for it to go up so I can begin working on submissions. Although now that I've decided to go back to college and I see my workload is pretty intense, it may be December before I can find time to start writing stuff up.

As for the argument that they aren't out there because we haven't seen them, that's such utter lazy logic. WE are "out there" and they haven't seen US. Consider what the odds of intelligent life existing in any given solar system. Even if we discovered FTL, we might not find other intelligent life out there because the odds are against it. What if it's a billion to 1? How long to explore a billion worlds? Of course, the odds go up greatly for an encounter if both species have FTL. There IS other intelligent life out there. It's a mathematical certainty.

That you know of.

Don't let that drive you away from this game. It's an excellent game and that part happened only at the end as the studio demanded they rush out the product too soon. It's the only flaw in what was otherwise a work of art. Play it. You'll love the story.

They use exotic matter to power an Alcubierre Drive. The ship never actually "moves", it alters the space around it. A good example is from the MIT scientist - I forget his name - who said he'd studied and helped reverse engineer alien ftl drives in Area 51: NASA started, stopped and has now resumed research on the Alcubierre Drive. As the above article goes on to say, warp drive will require negative energy densities. What some here call Unobtanium, I call something else in Junkyard Blues and the Netflix series Another Life calls simply 'exotic matter'. What I call this exotic matter is based on the (fictional) breakthrough that allowed immense negative energy densities to exist based on the Casimir Effect. If you want to know more - and why it is a critical component in the campaign - you'll just have to buy Junkyard Blues when it comes out, hopefully sometime next year. As for Junkyard Blues itself, the PCs starship crashes on a small planetoid composed entirely of wrecked starships. The Junkyard. They will need to learn how to survive on a twisted metal hellhole because it will take some time to make repairs and what they need to get off the Junkyard isn't readily available. And they're not alone.

Just watch Another Life on Netflix. Their drive is reactionless. It's what NASA is trying to make. And it's FTL. It's also the same kind of drive I used in Junkyard Blues, which will hopefully be released as an M-Space campaign in 2020.

"later this month" has come and gone. It's October now. Any word when this is going to be a thing?

That's called a pegasus.

yeah, see the crap I gotta deal with!

Even things already statted up for RQ can be considered merely guidelines. Almost everything ever written is statted up to be somewhat balanced vs starting characters. Knowing the strengths of a party, every statted up NPC is easily adjusted to your needs. Therefore, I think it has no meaning the words "convert HQ to RQ". You see they have a Lunar garrison. You want them to be average? 4 pts armor or 7? Skill levels on the fly. standard lunar magic. Etc., Etc. Etc.

I wing it or else I just use the Bestiary average or better. Unless there's lots of spells involved, then I might build those, at least as far as the spell list and tactics, or for a special NPC I want an epic battle out of. Most times, especially vs the epic foe, I just make it up as I go along. He got hit for a lot? He has a shield....counts...just high enough that all you did was wound him. He's still up. He really needs his spell to incapacitate or immobilize several of the PCs to make this interesting? His power is just high enough that with the roll I made I took out half of them. It's a goldilocks approach, but it works mostly. Sometimes he's too big or too little, but usually he's just right. Just takes a little practice.

There are two griffons out there somewhere, each with red eyes and a red beak.

Let's use a nice round number. Ten. Ten skills checked every time the adventurers have a session. If we stick to the RQG concept of an adventure every season, then 50 skills checked a year. You successfully go up in what? 40% of the skills you check? 60%? Let's say half, so 25 skill increases a year of PC adventuring. Average experience gain is 3.5 and if you multiply that by 25 you get 87.5% additional skills. Let's be generous and for simplicity's sake as well, then, and call it an even 100%. How many years have your PCs been gaming? Give the new PC 100% additional skills for every year. Then let the players deck him out in magic items to get him up to speed and give them something to do with all that extra stuff they've found.

A question: What about stuff I wrote for Hearts In Glorantha? Strange Broos were initially part of a larger campaign I'd like to put up on JC and the campaign wouldn't be the same without them.

I was about to type the same thing. In all the uncountable Runequest campaigns I've run, not one person rolled up a Storm Bull. But quite a few LM sages. And they've always been fun. There comes a point where they become capable of casting long term, decent spells upon the entire party and the whole party "levels up". Then they reach another stage later one where they begin to have even greater powers. It all depends on how you build their enchantments and what spells they learn. One thing I've learned DMing is that if a player comes from a D&D background and tells you he likes sorcerors, then don't give him a RQ sorceror. He won't like it. What he really is looking for is a RQ shaman. RQ sorcerors are a bit boring to play. Can't cast things well at first. Then, when they get useful, they tend to cast things during the adventures off time, not during play. A magic user who seldom casts spells during play and does all his spell casting between adventures is generally kinda boring. It's those times when he's desperately trying to get off his 3 rds to cast mega spell while the party holds off the boss that are entertaining.

I understand where Davecake and Jeff are both coming from and I wonder if either realize that sorcery as it is right now is still so broken when you reach a certain level and sorcerors have several levels of power. I think a Western supplement can go a long way in presenting the sorcerors approach to providing magic to his community. He too can summon spirits and enchant things and cast blessings...or curses. I think sorcery for Loskalmi can make for great adventurers if the culture and how it applies its magic is presented correctly. It just will be a lot different than shamanism and theism. Plus, they will collect magic items with spirit magic spells enchanted on them. I've long thought about doing a Loskalmi campaign.

SPIRIT DEN Description. A Spirit Den is generally an enchanted place or object where an animal spirit is voluntarily bound but with the freedom to roam within its POW in meters from the binding enchantment Cults Associated. Daka Fal, Waha, all shamanic cults. Knowledge Automatic. Procedure. A shaman can bargain with an animal spirit to voluntarily be bound to a place or object if in return it is allowed to range freely within its Power in meters. These spirits can be more easily persuaded if the area of the enchantment is desirable to its species. ie fish spirits in water. Beavers near dams. Powers. The Spirit Den serves as a local source of power for those who are allowed to draw upon the animal spirits magic points and for spirit magic known by the animal spirit. These are essential spirits a shaman maintains for his community. Value. Priceless to the shamans community.

Its far overdue that Loskalm be made a campaign setting IMO. Any ballpark figure on when that might happen?

okay, maybe a bit over the top, but it was fun. This is how we brought the group together. (minus my son, who had a last minute thing cause him to miss). We put on some 20's music and they read the following opening cut scene: Then the young would be baseball player informed the union activist that he was going to one day be in the hall of fame (historically true). The girls got him to play in order to make fun of him, but of course, he's actually quite good. The next day, Lottie is told that the Seamtress Union is going to go on strike and she's being sent to speak to a professor of Miskatonic University and try to drum up support for solidarity with the strikers. The Seamstresses create many of MU's college apparel. She is to urge them not to purchase from scab production. When she arrives, a woman in her late 30's, obviously a woman of great wealth, approaches her and asks directions to the same professor. Then Travis Jackson, the young shortstop appears. Surprised to see Lottie, he says he's looking for the same professor they are. He's answering a job offer to do some general labor for an archeaological expedition. The older woman eyes them both keenly. They meet the professor. The older woman tells him, "We celebrated our victory over the forces of darkness in the Great War, but evil does not rest and the battle is now fought on new battlegrounds. It seems my husband has been a casualty of this new war. He is paralyzed. Needless to say, we have developed a cover story. In August the doctors will announce he has polio. The entire report is here." She passes the professor a sealed folder. "I'm afraid our days as field operatives are over." she motions to the two PCs. "But fate moves in mysterious ways and it seems the forces of light have found our replacements." Travis and Lottie exchange puzzled looks. Travis speaks first. "I'm just here to get some honest work. I came for the general labor job you advertised for." The professor explains the job is in Peru. Travis agrees to the terms despite Lottie's opinion that 16 hour days, 7 days a week are outrageous. The wealthy older woman then smiles, "then it's agreed, you two young people are going to Peru." Lottie sputters. "I'm not going anywhere. I'm here to support the Seamstress strike. We want MU to show solidarity with the Seamtress Union." Now it's the professors turn to sputter. The wealthy woman intervenes. "It's high time Miskatonic had a womans branch don't you think? I'm sure I can raise enough donors to make that happen. I am sure that the dean will be happy to support the seamstresses don't you?" A stunned professor can barely nod, his head spinning. She turns back to Lottie. "Now, about you. I understand that the WTUL is losing financial support. I can see that fate has chosen you for this expedition. So I'll make you a deal: I'll support the WTUL, you spend two months in Peru." "Who ARE you?" Lottie asks in exasperation. "Oh dear!! How rude of me. I'm so sorry I completely forgot to introduce myself." She holds out her gloved hand. "I'm Eleanor. Eleanor Roosevelt." I think I heard my daughter's jaw drop over Discord. "I - I - what's so important about Peru? What's down there?" "Why that's what we want you to tell us dear." Eleanor replied, patting Lottie on the shoulder as she left. After they left the room, Edward Pierce entered. The professor asked, "So you heard everything?" Pierce nodded. "So what do you want me to do?" "Follow them. Don't let Larkin know you're there. Have their backs if they get in over their heads." Once they got to Peru, they met Sundance aka William Long, who had been hired as a guide and translator. And so it all began. Note from Wikipedia: In 1921 Eleanor Roosevelt became an active supporter of the WTUL. In August of that year, FDR was diagnosed with Poliomyelitis.