jongjom

13 hours ago, Jeff said:

Windstop is an unfortunate name on retrospect. Thematically, the events of 1621-1622 and 1624 involve:

• The Death of the Old Gods. Orlanth and Ernalda are finally killed and cast down into the Underworld by the Red Goddess.
• The return of the Old Gods to a new world. Orlanth and Ernalda return from the Underworld. 
• The revival of Orlanth as an Old God turned New. Orlanth appears at the Battle of Pennel, clearly changed. He has 11 stars not 8. He has heroes that are able/willing to fight the Red Goddess more effectively - using some of her secrets against her. 

Old gods eventually ossify, stagnate, and fail to provide meaning. They are cast down so that new gods can replace them - that's part of the teaching of the Red Goddess. But as a result of the Windstop, Orlanth and Ernalda are cast down BUT return, able to provide new meaning, new order, and new vitality. It's a very interesting mythic moment that pretty much is the opening of the Hero Wars. The rest of the Hero Wars could very well be described as "what is the meaning of the return of Orlanth and Ernalda."

Orlanth's dead, rebirth and transformation to match his foe, isn't that very similar to what the Red Goddess did?

In so doing so he become his enemy to defeat them (cough: Arkat; Brotherhood of the Swallow)?

18 minutes ago, smiorgan said:

You are re-building an extremely cool company. If you and the other guys were a tad less defensive it would be even better.

Just as well that I'm not in control of responding here for Chaosium (my pre-morning coffee and end of grinding day comments might be..err, 'defensive').

Two thing I keep in mind: one they probably have been through a year of grief (to put it mildly: would probably knock some of the joie de vivre out of you) and two that we're talking to a lawyer about rules

It would be great to actually have a go with the new rules to see how they work out in practice.

I like the idea of the big impact of the day/season/holy time etc. Maybe RQ should come with an evocative calendar with a counter of some kind to indicate which day / week / season it is and the bonus you can get.

The new sorcerer being able to fire off powerful spells sounds a bit like the new guy with the arbalest: a lot of the time comical, occasionally kicks arse. But then if spell Fumbles exist firing off a 'nuke' that wipes out one of your own party would again quickly remind everyone of the value of skill.

3 hours ago, Atgxtg said:

Instead of a +dx% cast bonus, maybe those bonuses could be changed to POW doubling. Like say 1 point POW doubling, but if the sorcerer has two or three such goodies it doubles the first two or three POW points spent. That would keep the bonuses useful, easy to play, but not all that powerful. 

A bit like a Magic Crystal from RQ2. I could live with that!

Another plea for no small bonuses. Nothing quite like slowing down a game for no discernible effect. If you roll +d10% a lot of the time you'll get a disappointing score which adds to the slow grind hassle. 

2 hours ago, Jeff said:

Yes. But it is also deliberately not being tested using people who have strong preconceived notions what they want or don't want to see in a sorcery rules (or any other rules). Just people who want to play with it and give me objective feedback (such as "hey we found that the sorcerer's ability to cause damage in combat was way greater/way less than anyone else in the party - even though she specialized in combat magic").

That's good. It was to say that the more you are not connected to the people the less bias is involved. If they hardly know you or the game then that's good, as that should hopefully remove even sub-conscious bias.

Out in the target gaming population will sorcery (and the game) be easy to understand and use, fun to play, and make intuitive sense?  Does it pass the acid test of typical gamers playing it? I appreciate this is a challenging Holy Grail but I hope that's what will be achieved.

It would be great to have a go with the rules before the final manuscript is sent to the printers.

Hopefully the Kickstarter will allow so kind of feedback on the game, and not just crowdsourcing errata.

Failing that it would be good to know that the sorcery rules were tried out on groups more than an arms length from the design team.

2 minutes ago, davecake said:

The problem is not so much about the mechanics matching to me (though, FWIW, I think mechanics that worked more like HQ-G would work fine, and probably better), its that they describe fundamentally different worlds. In one, sorcerers study Runes, in the other, sorcerers study grimoires. 

What are grimoires ultimately? Manifestations of Runes? (quick burn that man at a stake!!)

3 hours ago, davecake said:

Spells as skills was absolutely terrible in RQ3. made it terrible to start as a sorcerer, and hard to progress. Free INT was also an idea that should have died with RQ3.

On the corollary should then sorcerers start out kick-arse and immediately gain more power?

Also without knowing the chargen process for sorcerers it's difficult to say at the moment how powerful a starting character is?

54 minutes ago, Jeff said:

The core book of the new RuneQuest covers pretty much everything that was in RQ2 - we removed the bestiary into a different book because I wanted to include more information about monsters, make more monsters truly playable, and illustrate it. The third book contains stuff that was pretty much not in the RQ2 rules at all - rules on heroquesting, battles, becoming a hero, Dragon Pass encounters (with actual statted information), and scenarios.

So I don't think of that as a fair comparison in the slightest.

How many pages will the core book have?

Good to have more pages of great stuff, but conversely less pages because not everyone has the time and inclination. And less pages because I want the author(s) to exercise the art of conveying more with less words.

On ‎18‎/‎08‎/‎2016 at 7:28 AM, Jeff said:

We are putting together a combination of both. Frex, the Gamemaster book will have several stand-alone adventures, but we already are putting together the first campaign pack, which will be one of the first subsequent publications.

What kind of design will the new scenarios have? RuneQuest of old (RQ Classic, RQIII) or more like Pendragon, or is it and now for something completely different?

Are you guys going to put any link for the GenCon RuneQuest seminar? It would be great to hear what was said.

1 hour ago, RosenMcStern said:

Ok, I know I will sound polemic (and obviously biased...) but I feel there is something that needs be said, at this point.

<<<snip>>>

If you allow me to take off my hat of "party who has a vested interest" for a moment, I really, really would like to see much more comments about how RuneQuest is about to become a great and fun game, and an attractive introduction to Glorantha for new players, and much, much fewer comments about how this or that product line "almost killed the game".

I agree with much of what you have to say. Including some of the great products (e.g. Vikings [which is awesome], LoN, Cities) that I should have shown more respect for by mentioning.

I feel that the chagrin is much more for the company that "almost killed the game". Some of their issues affected the fans (e.g. lamentable art, production schedules, massive product price increase (esp. UK hit by a weak pound then too)). Some issues were what sounds like the 'communication' issues between Chaosium and AH which soured the relationship and didn't support the development of a vibrant product line.

For me I cannot wait until Chaosium do a RQIII Kickstarter to get PDFs of the products and the missing few copies from that line like Cities (but not the abominations of DoD and Eldarad -- being a man of taste you surely cannot mean those too!?).

12 minutes ago, MOB said:

I'm currently writing an introductory RQ scenario with Ken Rolston. Neither of us have ever written for HeroQuest.

OK. RQ vibe on steroids!

1 hour ago, MOB said:

It was me. And I stand by that.

My bet is that you by no means alone in that stand. I am Spartacus!

2 hours ago, jajagappa said:

Having lived through the 1982-1992 drought, I'd certainly assert it.  And I suspect that was the point being made.

Of the titles above, only Gods of Glorantha, Glorantha: CotHW, and Elder Secrets has a reasonable level of Glorantha content, AND NO SCENARIOS.

Troll Pak, Into the Troll Realms, Haunted Ruins -- all reprints.  Griffin Island - an annoying pseudo-reprint which lost its Glorantha context.

I agree what you say. Very much a drought that almost killed off the game and world.

However in 1983 the Big Rubble and Pavis was published by Chaosium Inc. and the Golden Era was still going strong.

RQIII was first published in 1984 and at the time AH supported the game world with Gods of Glorantha (1985). But it was too long a wait before Genertela (1988) was published along with reprints of RQII material (NB. give the dog/supporters a bone: SPH was republished in 1987). Only until Sun Country arrived (1992) did RQ have its first new Gloranthan scenario material, but the RQ Renaissance petered 2 years later out when Dorastor (1994) was published with what was to become the last AH scenario supplement.

So yes, I'll like some new RuneQuest Gloranthan scenarios regularly published!! My main concern is that they will be dedicated RuneQuest - not HeroQuest mind set scenarios with RQ stats added as an afterthought. Oh, for the elusive RQ vibe.

12 hours ago, Texarkana said:

Now that I am back in NZ, I can write up my scribbled notes from GENCON. I liked the look of the draft RQ player rules that were available for inspection at the Chaosium booth. Some bits that I wrote down at Friday Seminar on Runequest:

• The new edition allows you to play a "King of Dragon Pass" style game
• Chaosium wants to replicate the Call of Cthulhu organised play for Runequest with Glorantha scenarios
• The GMs book will have heroquest rules in it
• More new material is being planned than ever before
• Will be compatible with fantasy Grounds
• Khan of Khans - a simple cattle raiding card game
• Other related products: 13th Age in Glorantha manuscript is finished, Godswar kickstarter about to start, new edition of Dragon Pass in the works, and a sequel to the KODP computer game
• New sorcery rules are intended to be easy to use
• GMs book will have rules on becoming a hero
• Default setting has a date change with events out to the 1630s - moving beyond "Braveheart" into a more complex political situation that allows groups of mixed Orlanthi/Lunar cultists to be playing together.

Thanks for the info.

When you say "More new material is being planned than ever before" where they talking about info for RQ, including scenarios? Cheers

Three days to go before God's War launches!

 Any idea what time (and which time zone) the Kickstarter commences?

38 minutes ago, Steve said:

Recently, the Chaosium Facebook account commented (in response to something I said on one of their FB posts):

Which sounds intriguing, given that Rick said it would be a straight reprint.

 

Might to be two different things here. They're currently reprinting the GtG (with a couple of tweaks to the Credits). Historically they also talked about a different version altogether: whatever that will be.

1 hour ago, Mankcam said:

Ah right - I have HQG but haven't read it too much as I am more of a RQ/BRP GM ...well in that case it is Glorantha heh heh. BTW is that the Red Goddess in the centre? Did I get the others right?

Correct except the central figure is an Illuminated Ernalda priestess from the temple at Ezel (...of course!).

37 minutes ago, TheHistorian said:

I wondered the same thing. I'd be upset but I'm barely surprised anymore when backers from any Kickstarter (not just Chaosium's) aren't handled first.

Also, the slipcases were supposed to be KS exclusives.

And RQ1, Apple Lane, and Snakepipe Hollow are available here, but not yet (in print) to backers.

I do not know about the rest, but the slipcases are just the few 'spares' from the KS that they decided to sell rather than burn. Makes sense as 1) they should print extras for those lost in the post / damaged etc., and 2) just burning them just sounds wrong. As a KS I'm happy they can sell them: more cash to finish off the CoC KS!

In all the design of RuneQuest sounds very good. 

A concern is the large number of short cult write ups (17) and homelands (6) might create a wall of information for new players. Does it risk the RQ3 Gods Of Glorantha problem (e.g. the loss of depth that made CoP & CoT so much fun - each had fewer cults and each was set in one 'homeland')?

Having a slimmer rule book might be less intimidating. Especially when you're asking the reader to take two very different concepts on board: a quantitative rule system and qualitative mythical bronze age world.

It would be good to know what 'novice' players think of the completed book.

On ‎25‎/‎07‎/‎2016 at 5:01 PM, Jeff said:

The three books are:

1. RuneQuest rules. Everything you need to play. Its about 165,000 words. Page count will depend on art (right now it is 280 pages). This is the book you NEED to have.

Has this ended up being a far bigger book than expected? Or is streamlining the book now Jason's remit?

1 minute ago, TrippyHippy said:

Anybody who is a potential customer is also a potential playtester, and I'd hate to think that the game wouldn't be the best potential game it could be. 

Agreed. I was dividing people into groups without any preconceived prejudice and those with more extensive game experience (and inherent viewpoints / prejudice). Both views are valid, of course.

If the two groups differ then it leaves an ambiguous answer / solution. In which case then it's the designers' judgement call, who also have to take into account other factors (e.g. big back catalogue, streamlining the game etc.).

7 minutes ago, Paid a bod yn dwp said:

Yes i think a more streamlined approach to working out the bonus's is better as in RQ2. As long as the characterises are clearly having an influence on skills, the working out should be as straight forward as possible. Good point about the size of the bonus, however isn't part of the D100 RQ system about having a greater scale with which to get more variety in characters individual abilities? Would the bigger bonus (+10 +30 )negate that to an extent, making the d100 scale a bit more equivalent to D20 even ?

Experience rolls are still d6-1, so increases are incremental

A few thoughts:

We need to puts into perspective our pet Rulz peeves against the chance for CRQ4 being closer to the RQ2 back catalogue (and with the chance to easily adapt the RQ3 Glorantha back catalogue - future Kickstarter willing). Get all that out, and some promised new CRQ4 stuff, then you have the best ever supported Gloranthan game.

As to the 'unprejudiced eye': so we should not then be deferring to the play testers?