Jeff

Gang, please return this thread to discussion of how hit points are calculated and whether you want to home rule some new mechanism. But I don't want to have this become an ideological discussion about things beyond calculation of hit points. So knock it off or I shut it down.

Which is perfectly valid opinion. But it is worth point out that plenty of people like Strike Ranks and localised Hit Points (like myself and the other designers). They have been a part of every iteration of Chaosium RQ and there has never been any serious thought to getting rid of them.

I shouldn't need to add that if you want to use Legend for a project, you need to make sure that your project does not otherwise violate someone else's IP. But given the amount of wilful ignorance out there nowadays, I think it is probably prudent to remind folk of that as well.

Legend is its own thing and not under license from Chaosium or Moon Design Publications. Mongoose was perfectly entitled to take their work, remove from it those elements that were derived from RuneQuest or Glorantha and give it its own name, and then do with it as they see fit. Legend is not RuneQuest or BRP or Call of Cthulhu, and nor does it purport to be. If Mongoose wants to do a OGL of their original work, that is not our issue or concern. My post is only to remind folk that the MRQ OGL has long since expired and not to rely on it.

I don't collect souls, but do accept US dollars or Euros.

To the extent someone has made an original work that is not legally derivative of Chaosium's IP, of course they have the right to do with it as they will, including issue a perpetual OGL. That's the WotC OGL - WotC owned D&D outright and could do with it what they wanted, including issue perpetual third party licenses. However, Mongoose's license for RuneQuest was limited in duration. You can't license to others more than you actually have. So when their RuneQuest license was terminated, any licenses they issued under that license died with it.

In playtesting, that approach quickly got clunky and confusing for many players. People had no trouble with the idea of using the 1H Spear skill for attacking and parrying, but viewed using their Shield as a separate thing. Some people like using their shields to parry with, some people like using their attacking weapon to parry with. Getting rid of separate attack/parry skills solved a BIG problem in RQ2/3 where folk had an absurd imbalance in those skills (it also effectively DOUBLES the number of weapon skills characters have). I'd rather have players play around with more minor, character-defining skills like various Lores or Communication skills than double the number of weapon skills. It also added additional complexity to character generation, etc.

We considered that and rejected it. You are welcome to home rule that in your game, but that's not how it is presented in RQ.

I agree.

I dated her in high school. About the same time Prince released Purple Rain.

I'm clearly a follower of the Tripartite Woman - RuneQuest, Call of Cthulhu, and Pendragon. The Other Game must be Nephilim. Or Seven Seas.

An old version was sold last year at GenCon. It was MUCH smaller than the current version, and a lot has been revised even in the material that was included. Maybe - just maybe - I can be persuaded to sell a few of the current two-volume manuscript at GenCon, but there's need to be significant interest. Gods and Goddesses will take a while because it has a LOT of art, and it gets updated as I realise additional information is needed to support scenarios, etc. And of course the art. You think RQG looked good?

This is just a reminder to folk out there that there is not an Open Game License for BRP, RQ, or CoC. Q: Does Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest, Magic World, the Basic Roleplaying system, Pendragon, or 7th Sea come under the provisions of an Open Game License (OGL)? A: No. Q: Is there a System Reference Document (SRD) for Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest, Magic World, the Basic Roleplaying system, Pendragon, or 7th Sea? A: No. Q: Can I rely on the Mongoose RQ SRD to publish material? A: No. Mongoose’s license for RuneQuest was terminated in April 2011. At that point, Mongoose lost all rights to continue using the RuneQuest trademark, or to create and publish material derivative from the previous copywritten material, or to issue any sublicenses based on that agreement. Since Mongoose no longer had any rights to RuneQuest, it has no ability to issue a third-party license to that material (which is all an OGL is). For more information, see https://www.chaosium.com/fan-use-and-licensing-q-a/

Next up is the Smoking Ruins, then the Pegasus Plateau, and then the Starter Set. The RuneQuest Campaign Book and the Gods and Goddesses of Glorantha - those are my special projects and will be done when I feel they are done. Both contain tons of new material and help move the game forward into new territory - but as a result, they are far more complex than campaign and scenario books.

My personal experience comes from the martial arts as well, and at my temple at least, when you are practicising forms you don't practice attack OR parry as discrete skills, you perform it all together. You can certainly do what makes more sense to you, but as far as I am concerned, the mechanics are resolved.

There is no Free Will Rune, as that is not something inherent in the cosmos. The gods gave up their freedom of action as part of the Great Compromise between them - the dead gods and the living gods. That enabled the great web to contain Chaos and let Arachne Solara devour the Devil and give birth to Time. Mortals are not bound by the Great Compromise, although to wield the power of the gods they do devote themselves to their service, allowing the gods to act through mortals.

Actually, ANTIRIUS is Yelmalio as worshiped by the Solars. The Bright God is merely a placeholder for the absent Yelm. Yelmalio is neutral. In-between. Neither Solar nor Orlanthi. A bit of both and neither at the same time.

The old conflict between Elmal partisans and Yelmalio partisans reappears! Simple way of looking at this - the Elmal (sub)cult is associated with Orlanth, the Yelmalio cult is neutral. The gods fought in the Gods War, but also cooperated together in the Gods War. Orlanth has few non-Chaotic cults he cannot cooperate with on at least a neutral basis - he is the King of the Gods after all. He's hostile to the Seven Mothers, but not an Enemy, The Red Goddess is an Enemy as are all Chaotic cults.

I read the Anabasis and Diaz's Conquest of New Spain while doing a 160 km kayak trip in the Canadian Rockies with my brother. Nothing gives you more respect for the hardship those folk went through than reading about it after having done a 6km portage in the wilderness.

Orlanth is neutral to Yelm and Yelmalio. And yes, it IS possible to be in both Orlanth and Yelmalio. Seven Mothers is not Chaotic, and thus only hostile. You may be surprised, but that Cult Relationship chart accurately reflects how Greg and I view the relationships between the cults. YGWV and all that, but that is how it works in OUR Glorantha.

We have big tubs of dice. Tubs of them. And somehow I always fail to have the appropriate dice handy and end up borrowing from someone else.

How is fighting with a shield much more difficult? It is a separate skill, yes. But most folk start out with a decent skill at shield, and shields usually have more AP than weapons, cheaper to replace, and way more useful against missile weapons.

The single skill for Attack and Parry comes from everyone - Greg, myself, Steve, Sandy, Jason - and everyone I know who has ever done martial training, and even my own limited experience in Chinese staff and straight sword training. Multiple Parry comes from Steve and Jason. I like the rule addition (or I wouldn't have included it), although in practice it is used as more of a desperation move.

Pendragon came out of RuneQuest, and design-wise I find Pendragon to have very similar DNA to RQ2. The main reason Pendragon's opposed role system wasn't used in RQG is because we wanted to keep the dynamic of attack and parry for combat in RQ - and didn't want to introduce two very different "dice interpretation regimes."

She was exiled because you don't stage a coup d'etat and let the previous ruler just stay around. To make matters even worse, Kangharl was part of the Chan family, who held both the tribal kingship and the high priestess position. His father, mother, and surviving family members had been exiled, and he was a Lunar hostage. Like Theodoric the Great (who was a hostage of Constantinople in his youth) or Segestes of the Cherusci, Kangharl came to see that the Lunar Empire was victorious and that ultimately they were the true decision makes in Sartar. He made his peace with the Empire and was richly rewarded. Until that day he got devoured by a True Dragon. Funny that.