jongjom

A few thoughts on the Gen Con RQ:G after being lucky enough to see it:

• It does pretty much what Jeff says in his Blogs (e.g. RQ2 compatibility; gives the game's name meaning; you see how Pendragon came to be [damn you even more Avalon Hill!] etc.).
• It's a relief that its target print date is circa Q2 2018: the game is sound but typo correction / cleaning had to be done, and from all accounts the art / maps will be worth the wait.
• It gives them the necessary creative time to produce a book of quality (witness the Guide to Glorantha).
• The delayed start date hopefully means there will be quality supplements lined up to follow hard on the heels of the Core Book.
• It feels more RuneQuest than RQ2 and at the same time it's definitely separated from the 80's. That's quite a feat to say the very least. 

Now off to build a time machine and teach a few life facts to Greg in Jan 1983 along with a copy of the GtG and RQ:G (and buy some 53c Apple shares, Forrest Gump style). 

Link is:

https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?819569-What-s-the-status-of-RuneQuest-Glorantha

4 minutes ago, Beornvig said:

I certainly hope we're going to see lots of adventure content ala Borderlands for the new RQ, but that schedule doesn't mention anything in 2018.  I'm working my butt off creating enough content for my groups in Balazar, Dragon Pass, Prax, etc over here!  

Jason did say, "we're optimistic about having all three in print Q2 2018 (along with a few other things we've teased or announced)", and given that adventurers were mooted as part of their cunning plan, I would hope that this is what he is alluding to. 

Over on rpgnet, Jason Durrell wrote:

The RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha core book is text complete. The art is done, and some final maps are in the pipeline. The character sheet is done (and quite lovely). A cover is done. We're doing some refinement of the layout template and some of the look-and-feel of the book and the line overall.

The RuneQuest Gamemaster's Pack is being finalized, and comes after the core book as many tables/charts/maps will be repeated there (for convenience). It is in editing and will shortly go into proofreading. Some additional art and maps are being requested, and the back of the screen is in development.

The Glorantha Bestiary is being edited/proofed, and art is coming in at a rapid pace, as well as maps. It should go into proofreading before too long.

Layout on the core book will commence once the layout on The Glorantha Sourcebook (done as part of the 13th Age Glorantha Kickstarter, but systemless and using the trade dress for the RuneQuest line) is complete.

The Gamemaster Pack will follow, then the Bestiary.

Given the timetables involved and production pipeline, we're optimistic about having all three in print Q2 2018 (along with a few other things we've teased or announced), and expect Gen Con 2018 to be a huge RQ showing. I don't have any more specific dates because so many factors are beyond my ability to control.

No Cannons in Sun Country, just Harpoons. 

I'll get my coat. 

A few thoughts 

- How do the Heroes get wind of this so, so early to prepare and deal with the truly monumental event? Smacks of the breaking of Time. Give them each a Chaos or Dragonewt Rune for their troubles? 

- The Heroes just might be distracted by events elsewhere (there's a war goin' on ya know) that look like they will cause The End of the World as We Know It. (Or don't worry about reawakened Dragons and Chaos consorting gods? After all what problems are they going to create? Argrath? Yeah, well leave him to get on with all that new weird stuff. It's not like he will do any harm to the Cosmos. etc. etc.)

- It might not be just one flood. 

- Well done for stopping the (first) flood Heroes. Now you're living on the Land that Survived how will you deal with the masses invading from parts that were not so protected? Because we all know that all those guys are our Very Best Mates. All live in Harmony and make it the Green Age again?  

- Who says the icebergs are undefended? 

- Well done for stopping the icebergs Heroes. Do you realise that your action helped at least one of the other World Ending Events? People have come to ask you why you are aiding the destruction of their world, and they're not very happy.

So much fun to be had!!

The other effect Water can do is to back off a bit just before the Iceberg arrives. Water does what it knows: how to flow (or not), how dam up and how to produce a wave.

So a milder Doom Current just before the Iceberg break hits the Denestlazam Ocean would allow the forces of Water to gather in Sramak's River. This would increase the depth of the bowl in the center as water continues to drain through Magasta's Pool. Then the surge / Doom Current wave along the top of the Banthe Ocean and onto the Denestlazam Ocean would carry the Iceberg along the Denestlazam Ocean to Magasta's Pool. This massive water volume (and requisite oversized plug) creates a massive dome of water in the middle. 

Of course the unfathomable depths are not truly blocked (the glacier just isn't deep enough) so the dome of water collapses and partly sinks into the not-truly-blocked Magasta's Pool (and he has mythic responsibilities to keep up, after all), but also a truly gigantic wave is created that radiates outwards and creates the flood. 

Thanks for the insightful reply Joerg.

I wonder though, as the Waters are acting as part of a planned event that they will not do things as expected / normal. Why should they be out to help humans? 

The GtG says about the Doom Currents, "[t]hese usually flow far beneath the surface, but at times these currents rise from the deep and rage, swollen and angry, across the surface of the ocean like a mountain of water or the back of a giant serpent". Hence, part of their plan could be to surge water to the top and along the surface. This is an attack, so they will do things in a way that gives them the advantage. The Troll and Water Tribes have had time to plan here. 

Also, maybe even before getting to the Doom Currents the Water Tribe will seek to assist the Iceberg across the Hudaro Sea. It may well need some help as it is "hundred of miles wide" and it's depth maybe "500 to 2,000 feet" (approx. 150m to 610m high) the same as Valind's Glacier is "along the northern edge of Fronela". However, "[a]s a Gloranthan average, the depth [of High Seas, e.g. Banthe Sea] is between 300 and 600 feet [91m to 182m]." So some lift and carry from Sea below may be needed here. Cue a surge and rise from the Water beneath. 

Magasta's Pool is about 125 miles wide (on average), giving it an area of about 12, 300m2. So, say a 210 mile long by 130 mile wide (27, 300m2) sized iceberg could do the trick of filling Magasta's Pool and some of the surround Ocean, and to allow it to be a bit of a wavy Water-Rune shape, of course.

To put this into some kind of perspective the largest recorded Iceberg on Earth was the B-15 which was 183 miles long and 23 miles wide (about 4,200 m2). 

So it's a whopper. 

The tide is not the cause of the rising sea level. It is the Doom Currents bringing in water and the lack draining through Magasta's Pool. Maybe the rising of the water will fluctuate with the tide, but it is the blocked sink that will cause the water level to rise due to the greater volume of water on top of the cube. How quickly the water level increases will be down to how quickly the water from the Doom Currents comes in and causes the flooding to take place (all mythological effects being equal). 

Also, the GtG says, “the surface of the Gloranthan world-ocean slants downward at the center, at the edges like a dish”. So, it looks like the dish would get levelled out, and then possibly even temporarily bow upward as the Doom Currents continue to rush in. Possibly, as the dome of water collapses it might create a truly massive continental-sized wave / water surge. The Troll and Sea Pantheon are cunning and have had a very long time (centuries) time to plan this. So why not hold back the water for a little bit longer and to gather all the Water forces together (after all Magasta will still be calling--very loudly now--to all the world's seas and rivers to the center) and only then to release them all in an one-time surge. At that point the iceberg drops through the centre of the Pool and off on its next part of its journey (albeit a tad smaller in size). 

Local Building Wall sized barriers will not work here. 

Cool start. 

Does it have Reputation on it?

And any space for Condition Runes that an adventurer might have (E.g. Lhankor Mhy: Law; Orlanthi: Mastery; Sorcerer: Magic)? 

Also, maybe worth having space to show a Missile Weapon's range. 

2 hours ago, trystero said:

That's more indicative of how terrible a measure of health BMI is than of a problem with the SIZ table. BMI doesn't account for bone and muscle mass being denser than fat, squares height instead of cubing it for no explicable reason, and is basically junk science; see, for instance, this NPR article which points out, among other things, that BMI inventor Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet explicitly stated that his formula “could not and should not be used to indicate the level of fatness in an individual”.

(There's also this article pointing out that the average Denver Broncos player is obese according to the BMI, and that many athletes rate as overweight or obese.)

I generally agree, I was trying to use a rough and ready measure without getting too technical.

However, whichever way you measure it the 195cm+ and 100Kg+ categories are going to be bigger than is expected, especially dealing with a Bronze Age setting rather exceptional athletes of certain sports in the modern setting (even Olympic precipitants of all sports are not of this category). 

The RQ SIZ tables have always been slightly suspect.

As is currently written, the average "Bronze Age " RQG Adventurer / Gloranthan is slightly heavier and taller than the average modern North American and European (unless RQG only considers males). This feels just wrong. 

As you go up the scale toward SIZ 18, the height and weight 'gain' becomes more significant.

At SIZ 16 (191-195cm) the height is already equal to the top 3% of the population for modern Europeans and North Americans (mathematically the top 3% should be represented by SIZ 18+). At SIZ 18 a human is 203cm tall, and already 5cm (2 inches) taller than an average SIZ 18-19 male dark troll (GtG has them at 198cm on average). 

The weight issue is probably best compared to height (Body Mass Index: kg/m2). tl;dr All SIZ 18 RQG adventurers are overweight to obese. Even using the lightest (119kg) and tallest (205cm) options for this SIZ ends up with an adventurer 13.5Kg (29.8 lbs) overweight. To be healthy you have to be SIZ 18 height but SIZ 16 weight.

Or you could tweak the scale to work better. 

My suggestion would be:

This narrows but does not close the overweight issue to 2.6kg using the above min-weight/max-height metric. But at least it is more believable and still works for SIZ 18-19 dark trolls too (who as would be expected have to pick height and weight from different SIZ categories due to their species stature)! 

On ‎03‎/‎11‎/‎2017 at 9:06 AM, MOB said:

Even if this isn't actually so, a lot of present day (1628) Kethaelans probably believe it. 

Present day is 1628? I thought RQG it was 1625, same as 13th Age Glorantha? HQ seems to be set whenever it want to be! 

9 hours ago, Psullie said:

POW is listed as being 'spiritual presence' while CHA is 'force of personality' so it makes sense that controlling spirits requires POW

I'm happy to go along with that, but it doesn't quite explain why there is a change, say, from an Assistant Shaman (who uses CHA) to Shaman (who uses POW)? 

IMHO RQG presents a new and much, much improved set of rule for Shamans, something for the gamer and Gloranthan fan alike. It makes sense to the focus on CHA as the relationship-forming characteristic that governs the number of spirit magic spells and the number of Bound Spirits an adventurer can have. 

What I struggle to understand is why this rule changes for shamans. The number of spirit magic spells obtainable is still governed by CHA (albeit now taking into consideration the shaman's fetch) but when it comes to Binding Spirits or forming Spirit Pacts, POW used to calculate the numbers rather than CHA. This raises a number of questions:

• Why change the relationship-forming CHA for POW? 
• Does this imply spirits are now kept by force?
• Why the change at all (CHA & POW will be similarly high for any half-decent shaman/fetch)?
• Keeping it CHA means even a very average shaman / fetch will still be able to bind/form pacts with over 20 spirits (far, far more than any non-shaman), which is probably getting to be the top end of what is manageable in play?

If uber-quantities of spirits are still required then it doesn't take much at all to tweak the rules to allow this to happen (i.e. have Expanded Presence include number of Binding Spirits / Spirit Pacts, although the "temporary" increase in the fetch's CHA will probably be need to be dropped to just 1D6).

The value in this means that it keeps the rules as a consistent narrative (and easier to remember!).

What was the value in making the change to POW? 

2 hours ago, Jeff said:

We've got that covered. In the scenario booklet that comes with the GM Pack, we've got statted up figures that include a tribal king, the high priestess of an Earth Temple, a chieftain or two, their bodyguards, some Issaries priests, etc. Very similar to what was done in Griffin Mountain. 

And in the second wave of releases, we are doing a big book of statted-up encounters. Need a dark troll war party? Here it is. Need a Grazelander war band? Here it is. And so on.

If you could do something similar to the encounters section in the Sartar Companion (but with RQG stats!) that would be great, IMHO. 

Page 71

Analyze Magic 3 points

Should be

Analyze Magic 1 point

2 hours ago, Yelm's Light said:

I just had one of those slap-your-forehead realizations re: the failed attack vs. successful parry thing.  So obvious once you think of it.

It'd be a strong limiting factor against splitting attacks, especially when fighting more experienced opponents.

(After some thought on the matter, usually in the shower when my mind wanders, I think I'd HR that particular rule to a max of 4 points damage to the weapon.  One point really isn't enough; there'd end up being very little breakage at all.  And possible full damage is excessive to my mind.) 

Yes. In the 120% fighter A vs 85% fighter B situation, fighter A has less than a 5% of getting their attacking weapon damaged. But if they split their attacks to 60% then the chance goes up to 30%+ per attack. 

However, the rules at being worked on, so let's see what happens . 

1 hour ago, styopa said:

IIRC what, 50 copies of the rules isn't much of a cross section of samples?

There was a fair amount pretty fundamentally amiss with the QS rules, to the point that Jason delurked in here to mention that it was based on January-beta text and had much changed even by the point of release of the QS....

It was a 100 copies! 

Not that there is much fundamentally amiss with RQG IMHO, but polishing takes time.

9 hours ago, 7Tigers said:

Yes, I guess that it would be a no brainer for a lot of people to pay for a Release Candidate edition in order to provide feedback, at least for potential typos, or write scenarios.

AFAIK, a number of those who bought RQG have given feedback: so much so that they need to digest that information first before trying to take on any more. 

1 hour ago, hanataka said:

The following example is written in GenCon Preview.

I do not mind that weapons will break. It is one of the fun of RQ.
However, I feel that breaking a lot is damaging playability.

My concern too is that attacking weapons are too easily damaged by a parrying weapon.

To put numbers on this: An attacker at 55% is parried by a defender at 85%. This translates to about 30% chance that the result is a failed attack vs. normal parry. This would result in the parrying weapon rolling damage direct to the attacking weapon's HP. Then add to that another 6-7% chance for combinations of failed/fumbled attack and critical/special parry, for other types of serious parrying weapon damage against the attacking weapon's HP. How do beginning adventurers start out against the big boys and girls without a sack full of weapons! 

This is much less of an issue with a skilled attacker (e.g. 85%) against a lesser defender (e.g. parry 55%) with respective likelihoods of about 6% and 1-2%. 

Parrying weapons are less likely to receive significant damage (only a 8% +/-3% chance on each parry) from a successful attack.

Hence the main issue seems to be the damage done by a defending weapon on a failed attacking weapon. (For this reason: not much value in shields ).

Queens Post on page 187 but Queen's Post on the map (e.g. page 176 and page 180)

5 minutes ago, nclarke said:

Chaosium said no more Kickstarters - they learned a lesson. PDf in late 2017, print in 2018 easy.

True, there is a proviso on this: 

"We won't be Kickstarting any releases in the Call of Cthulhu line going forward (or RuneQuest either).

We still might use Kickstarter for special projects, and for our boardgames line. Our new Miskatonic U boardgame, for example.

MOB - Chaosium Inc."

The plans for Mythic Iceland sound very interesting. I'm looking forward to what will be produced. 

4 hours ago, Jason Durall said:

On other fronts, we'd LOVE to see a book about medieval Germany. I'd love to see a book about Constantinople, or about 16th century Prague and King Rudolf II's obsession with alchemy. A Japan book would be most welcome. 

Any chance of an ancient mythic-period of Greece? Jason and the Argonauts type romp through the known and mythic world? This has always seemed the epitome of RuneQuest on Earth to me.