Thalaba

That's an interesting perspective on the work - and quite different from my own, to my surprise. I definitely don't consider it to be unplayable - in fact it approaches my preferred gritty low magic style of play for fantasy, and I applaud Jeff for trying to get people to play outside their familiar boxes. My favourite things about the setting are the deep mystery and the multiple conspiracies that are in place to keep the truth hidden. I can picture the look on my players faces as the various realizations that humans are being manipulated dawns on the players. I also like the allusion to the seven deadly sins - I think Jeff pulled this off nicely and avoided the trap of being too heavy handed about it.

My beef with the setting as written is that it doesn't stray far enough from generic fantasy. There are a number of tropes in the setting that don't (to me) seem to have any real reason for being there other than to satisfy the notion that people expect them to be in a fantasy. I found the presence of elves, dwarves, and halflings in the setting to be jarring, frankly, and completely unnecesary for the setting. This is easily solved by just turning these into humans, of course, so it's not a major thing.

While I like the theme and the tone of the setting a lot, I found it a little too... western... in the creative details (such as the placenames and the cultural aspects) and this, along with the presence of the stock non-human races, made the setting a little too generic for my taste. I freely admit that I like fantasy setting to really push the envelope in terms of culture, so my expectations might be set further than most in that regard.

While I see where you are coming from in your comments, I'm quite certain the setting is playable as it is. I think it requires a different mindset than what might be traditional - but then that is the goal that Jeff set out to achieve, I think - to get people to change their thinking about what fantasy means. I personally wish he had gone just a bit further, but I like to think that perhaps he left in those traditional fantasy tropes intentionally so as not to alienate too many people at once. Ashes to Ashes is no bleaker in its outlook than CoC, in my opinion, and certainly has more scope for heroism than CoC has. It is, in many ways, a very thought provoking work.

Thalaba

I was introduced to a record label I hadn't heard of over Christmas that you might like: http://www.progrockrecords.com/

I haven't really explored the site yet, but I'm curious about it. My understanding is that it's all new music. From a few random listenings some of the music is definitely reminiscent of Styx, Alan Parsons, and Jethro Tull.

WHAT!!?? You don't think that desperately trying to hide bodies in the snake pit while the six armed, scimitar slashing, snake goddess slithers down the hallway to see what all the commotion was about is dramatic enough? You're on drugs.

BTW - now that his monograph his nearly done, this marks Tywyll's first emergence from the cave into another forum (that I've noticed). Welcome back!

Yes, happy birthday! Here's wishing you can move yourself up a notch in the rank of oldest roleplayers!

Well, I belong to two other gaming sites which are not BRP centric and I'm quite sure the demographic is similarly skewed (perhaps not as dramatically in the case of RPG.net), so there is something else at play. I suspect the entire hobby is an aging demographic, regardless of the game.

If Chaosium wants to attract younger players: ElfQuest Online.

Maybe there's also a phenomenon like this: Young people just like to play games, but old people like to talk about playing games.

Cool! Looks pretty sharp so far.

My thoughts:

1. If only the GM can switch to a non-humanoid template, can the GM switch the player's views to non-humanoid templates? In other words, does it support games where everyone plays a lizard man or a dragon-newt?

2. I suppose there is no vitruvian man type view for non-humaoid hit locations?

3. I know this isn't relevant to hit locations, but I see dice across the bottom of the sceen, which I suppose are clickable to get a roll. I also see a modifier. But I don't see percentile dice and it looks like the modifier only goes up to six dots. I assume that eventually this will change to reflect the percentile nature of BRP. Would it be possible to get a d3 and a D2 as well? Useful for those half damage bonus times.

In my view the Mishap Tables should only include very general notes on possibilities

of what could happen, to serve as an inspiration that allows me to tailor the result

to the specific situation, for example the specific mission the character is on.

Just to be clear, the text above shows the GM interpretations of what he might have rolled on the mishap table - but the table itself might say "Dropped tool"/"Suit damaged"/"Vision obscured". So yes, the mishap table should have general results, although maybe specific consequences should be mentioned ("Vision obscured for 1D6 rounds - all physical actions are difficult for the duration").

In my view, when the PC rolls his skill in danger situations like this he is in the frying pan and trying to get out. If he fails he's still in the frying pan and still trying to get out, but if he fumbles he's in the fire.

In my opinion a failed roll should be interpreted something like this:

Situation: Ok Rusty, you're perched on the side of this vertical steel piling and trying to fix the relay mount. The current is trong here, so you've got one foot on the flange to steady yourself and the safety tether is holding you in place. The Bentho-beasts are making more and more threatening passes. Your dive buddy is trying to hold them off, but won't be able to for long. You've got to get that welding job done, and soon. You've got about 20 seconds to finish this.

(20 seconds later Rusty rolls and the GM interprestes his result)

Failure: Rusty, your having some problems with this weld for some reason and it's not quite where you'd like it to be. You've got two choices - you lean leave it tacked as it is, but you'll have to come back later 'cause it won't hold forever - or you can spend another 20 seconds to get this right the first time - and hopefully your buddy can keep the bentho-beasts off your back.

Fumble: (rolls on Mishap table to get one of the following results)

You lose your footing for a second and have to reach out to steady yourself. In so doing you lose control of the torch for a second and it cut it's own tether. It's now falling into the abyss. Will you go after it?

You lose your footing for a second and have to reach out to steady yourself. In so doing you lose control of the torch for a second and you can see the sparks as it burns something out on your suit. Your oxygen warning light has just come on. You've got maybe a minute of oxygen left and you haven't finished the weld yet.

A dark shadow passes over you. You spin around suddenly to see a bentho-beast right behind you. Surprised you try to get out of the way and accidentally cut into its flesh with the torch. Bentho-blood is seeping out everywhere and osbcuring your vision - and all that blood will drive the others mad with frenzy.

and so on, getting progressively worse. You might even 'weld nearest flange for maximum rolled damage'

What kind of system, other than knowing your game world's supply, demand, and taxation levels, would be required for trading? Can someone give an example of what would be wanted in such a system?

It seems to me that underwater adventure will be something of a feature for this setting. In that case I would say that it deserves a little more punch than simply using the swim skill. There's a lot more to scuba diving than just swimming, so I would suggest a Deep Sea Diving skill that covered both at the very least, and you might divide it into SCUBA DIVING (covering both wet suit and dry suit) and POWERED HARD SUIT DIVING, depending on how you think the skills might be used.

I would allow any kind of Diving skill to be substituted for swim skill in situations where swim is called for, but not the other way around. If would limit people's underwater activities to their Dive skill in the same way the doing something while riding is limited to one's ride skill.

For fumbles, I would make a separate Diving Mishap Table with maybe 10 items on it - probably one for SCUBA and another for hardsuit.The Scuba list might include things like Nitrogen Narcosis, Cut or pinched air line, Octopus malfunction, Regulator malfunction, Mask gets knocked off, cut self on equipment or sea floor, disoriented/compass fails, depth guage fails (which can be really bad news if your down deep), dropped tool, and Major Mishap (which would depend on the situation, but could include surfacing too fast, or a rip in the buoyancy compensator), etc.. For harsuits I would use some of the same (dropped tool, disoriented, depth guage fails), but not others (mask knocked off, cut line, regulator fail), and I would add some new ones (loss of pressure control, loss of motor control, view panel obscured, and so on) .

Thalaba

Hehehe that's good news ... :thumb:

Yes, that's great Triff - thanks for keeping us slackers in mind!

Yeah, thats what I'm getting, added to which the links and other sections seem to have vanished. When I get the home page various sections seem to be superinposed over the top of other sections, words missing and all sorts. I'm hoping it's part of the software upgrade and things will be back to normal soon.

I've noticed effects like this when I run the site in a reduced window. When I have it full screen it's OK. Could that be the issue?

I really dislike MRQ1 and wasn't planning on ever looking at MRQ2, but this is getting me curious.

Ditto this.

I actually don't mind it. Yes, it's uglier, but it's also less eye-catching, which means it's less likely to catch my boss' eye when he looks over my shoulder. But I would be OK with something more attractive that didn't have the giant word 'ROLEPLAYING' at the top of the screen.

Now this really depends on my mood, but...

My recent favourites are:

Greene King IPA

Duchy Originals organic ale

Other favourites:

Trois Pistoles, Don de Dieu, and Blanche de Chambly by Unibroue

Hockley Valley Dark and Hockley Valley stout

Tankhouse Ale by Mill St. Brewery

Wellington County Dark Ale "Try a Wellie on"

Schneiderweisse

Aventinus

Leffe

Innis & Gunn Oak Aged Beer (red label)

St. Ambroise

Any German Dunkel I can lay my hands on

Cairngorm Brewery's Blessed Thistle Ale

I could go on...guess I like beer

Big bug, fixing it now. No extensions where allowed by default...

Anyway, I've added: doc, docx, odt, pdf, rtf & txt.

Help me, what other extensions do we need?

SGL.

xls and ods - the microsoft XL and Open Office Calc extensions. Also, I was thinking of one day adding some sketchup files - the extension for those is .skp.

The last two weeks of threads and posts went missing following a software update, which is why you cant find it.

I really like your idead of the silk shirt giving a first aid bonus - consider it adopted in our game!

Which version of RQ are you talking about?

Thay are all here, but all the threads are arranged by time since last post, so some of them might not be on the first page anymore. You could do a simple search if there was a thread that you wanted to resurrect.

SGL.

Hmmm... I still can't find the two recent threads I tried - the one on negative damage modifiers and the one about armour spawned by the linen armour link. Is it just that my search-fu is weak?

They're there - well, at least I see the Pharos IV and Interplanetary threads, amongst others. But all threads started in the last two weeks are missing from all sections, so the one you're looking for might be one of those.

Are those recoverable, BTW, Triff?

Seconded - All things considered, you're doing a great job!

But the new forum look is actually a lot more office-friendly ... no way my boss is going to guess what's going on here when he glances askance at my monitor ...

:innocent:

I FULLY ENDORSE THIS STATEMENT! (shouting for effect) :thumb:

I would probably handle the 'Dolphineering' skills with a 'knowledge' skill that would either be 'Dolphin Training' or 'Marine Biology'.

I would handle the remote control with a Fine Manipulation skill, limited by the Dolphin Training' skill.

Thalaba

Hey, hey, hey! No posting to this thread you "Who's Name Cannot Be Pronounced" I will not have this thread contributing to the end of humanity.

You have been duped, my friend. Mr Apocalypse is only here to lull you into a false sense of security. One day soon, when it is too late for you to stop it, he will throw off his cowl and reveal his true self, and the two shall add to 2000. Don't be fooled by the lack of typos!

Now, I'm off to prepare my shelter in the Canadian shield. Good luck to you.

I'm not really familiar with Future World, but the names Quertzl and Sauriki sound...kinda cheesy. I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that I'm not representative of the RPG community when it comes to taste in games, but I would definitly be put off the book if I read those names on the back cover. I'm one of those people that craves originality in a setting. I don't want people to copy the work of some author - I want new and interesting settings. I suppose that's why the most cherished settings in my collection are Glorantha, Jorune, Artesia's Known World, Mechanical Dream, and Blue Planet.

Personally, I don't care if the setting has starships as long as it can evoke that sense of wonder that I crave.

This thread will get you started on understanding sorcery: http://basicroleplaying.com/forum/basic-roleplaying/1336-rq3-basic-magic-sorcery.html