K Peterson

I know exactly what Magic World is. I was being a little hyperbolic when I said "all the BRP shit in a pot", true. I prefer those predecessors (Elric / RQ3) as they stand on their own rather than a cocktail of them blended together. To me, the parts don't hang together cohesively and felt too kitchen sink.

I've been of two minds when it comes to Hit Locations, for years. On the one hand, I like the tactical grittiness that I was first introduced to in RQ3. And I still liked it as it was re-introduced in MRQ2/Legend. I'm a big Legend fanboy, and love to use it as the core for sword & sorcery campaigns. The "narratives" that have resulted from the combats in these systems have been amazing. They've been exciting and dramatic, and also reflected the themes of the genre. But, I've also been fond of the abstraction and speed provided by systems like Elric! for years, as well - with its variable armor protection, major wounds, and more primitive DEX ranks based initiative system. Sometimes speed and abstraction can be more key to the experience, even sacrificing more dramatic combats. I learned a harsh lesson 4 months ago, running a Legend campaign over Roll20. Somehow I ended up with 6 characters in a campaign that was originally going to be targeted towards 4. As the sessions progressed the bookkeeping and the work required for detailed tactical combat became overbearing. I started flailing to keep up with the demands of combat, and started to tweak rules on the fly just to tread water. Working within Roll20 didn't make matters any easier. As much as I love Legend, I don't think I can go through that complexity again. With 2 to 4 players, detailed tactical combat is manageable; any more players than that and the experience - and I - wilt as a side effect. I'm planning another fantasy campaign, and I'm seriously thinking about using Elric! instead because it'll be easier to GM. And there is the likelihood that I could have that number of players again. (Though hopefully we will be face-to-face instead of VTT).

I'm not a huge fan of Magic World as a product - preferring its predecessors (Elric!, RQ3) to the lets throw all the BRP shit in a pot and stir it up, slap on some ugly art and layout, and then not support it approach. But I'd be even less likely to use MW if it leveraged CoC7e mechanics. Most of the reason is that I found 7e to be an absolute missed opportunity, when it came to the evolution of BRP game mechanics. It didn't include anything that would "update" or improve my CoC gaming experience. And, rather than improve on prior editions, it felt like it threw the baby out with the bathwater, all in the interest of change for change's sake. 7e was wrapped up in a pretty package - who can complain about sturdy, full-color core books? - but many of the mechanics just seemed borrowed from more successful systems. Combine that with general rules bloat, and it would make it my least favorite edition of CoC, and BRP overall. The other reason is that 7e hardly seems like an update to BRP, when it comes to Chaosium's publishing practices. I've seen many gamers cheer on the changes that came with 7e - and if you like them, and they improve your gaming experience, more power to you. And I can understand fans wanting to homebrew updates based on BRP variants that they enjoy. But, it doesn't seem that Chaosium has embraced 7e as the next evolutionary step in BRP, and given the indication that it would be used for an upcoming non-RQ fantasy Rpg (if they decided to do that). RQ: AiG's development and release came years after the release of CoC 7e. And at the time, I expected it to follow on the coattails of 7e's mechanics. Instead, it went further back into the history of BRP development, and then tacked on setting-specific mechanical changes. Hell, it still appears to have the Resistance Table?! Have any of 7e's mechanical additions shown up in RQ:AiG? That's not clear from just looking at the Quickstart. The BRP SRD was released, what, a year ago? I don't see any mention of 7e mechanics in it. The template for future 3rd party BRP releases looks like the BRP of 20-30 years ago! Can we also assume that it's the template for future Chaosium BRP releases? If/when a new version of Mythic Iceland is released, will it follow in the footsteps of CoC7e's mechanics? Or will it more resemble the SRD? I suspect the latter. Anyway, I went down a tangent there. But, besides the point that I wouldn't use 7e mechanics for MW; it hardly seems likely that Chaosium would reboot MW, or produce a new, non-RQ fantasy Rpg using those mechanics.

I asked these questions over on Mongoose's Legend forum. Got 150 views over a week and no responses, so I thought I'd try here. I figure if this doesn't garner any responses, either, I'll hit up Mythras' forums since the question is applicable there, too. It's been a little while since I last run Legend, so I've been refamiliarizing myself with some of the more obscure rules. A question: What is the effect of Serious or Major Wounds inflicted on a monster with many limbs? Let's say you're facing off against a Giant Spider and you inflict a Serious Wound on its Left Fourth Leg. Clearly, the spider may not be able to use that limb if it fails a Resilience test, and it'll likely slow its movement rate. But, I would expect it to be unlikely to fall prone since it has other means of support. What if you inflict a Major Wound and sever the Left Fourth Leg? Will the spider be at risk of unconsciousness or the risk of death from shock and blood-loss? Or will it sustain itself until you disable or sever a number of limbs? I've forgotten if this was referenced somewhere in the rules, and I can't find it. Or if it wasn't addressed, and people have resolved this with house rules. Any feedback would help! Thanks!

$250 + $20 shipping. A little rich for my blood. Good luck with your auction, though.

I voted for Common Magic. IMO, it's the most straightforward in application. The description of Common Magic in the core book presents it as a standard magic system. "Spells and cantrips that are ubiquitous to many cultures and societies. Common Magic manipulates the natural order with varying degrees of subtlety and offers a host of effects that ease daily life or augment specific endeavours, such as combat and skill use. ... the nature and effects of Common Magic are visible to all, understood by most and recognisable from one culture to another."

I wasn't aware that Magic World had reverted back to 3D6/2D6+6. (Elric!'s boosted stats, I guess, reflected the cultural stat bonuses you could receive in Stormbringer 1-4). I guess it comes down to how you want to present the game world: are adventurers generally better physically and mentally by nature than the average man, or are they average men who become acclaimed adventurers? With BRP Fantasy campaigns I run, I offer either 3D6/2D6+6-and-assign or a point-buy option. Players can pick their preference. I'd much rather leverage mechanics like Hero/Fate/Luck points (that allow dice re-rolls, injury downgrades, etc.) to reflect the heroic advantages of adventurers than to have every adventurer be a 'roided-up, big-brained superman. Back in the day, when I played AD&D, roll-and-drop-lowest and then assign was the standard. How else are you going to have a chance at that sweet, sweet 18-percentile Strength? 😉 I don't really care for roll-extra-but-keep these days, for the reasons I mentioned above. I did that with Traveller a decade ago. Players rolled all of the dice and then matched up pairs and assigned where they pleased. Worked fairly well.

Yeah, agreed. As a GM, I tend to be a little... interpretive of detailed fumble tables (for attacks/parries). I find most minor fumble results (dropped weapons, disorientation, damaged equipment) to be inconvenient enough, and leading to bad-enough situations. IMO, it starts getting ridiculous when you have PCs accidentally stabbing themselves or impaling their friends in the throat. I consider fumbles to be commensurate to the conditions of the Drive test. If PCs are not driving at an insane rate of speed, not taking serious risks and have reasonable weather conditions, the fumbles will be inconvenient (vehicle damage that further impacts their driving, for example.). If the situation is bad - high rate of speed + slick surfaces + erratic movement - it could get ugly. Even with a high-speed crash, damage will be random, leading to a chance that not everyone-dies / is seriously injured. But as I said, the stakes of the Drive test would have to so high for that kind of fumble to happen. And the PCs would be aware of the risk they're taking. If they choose to gamble their lives on a die-roll then that kind of fumble-result is not unreasonable, IMO.

Depends on mood and the campaign I'm running. Sometimes I want things straightforward with Base Skills + Occupation Skill Points -> Go!. Other times I want more complexity and prefer MRQ2/RQ6/Mythras stat + stat. (Today, I'm feeling more stat+stat. But that's because I've been re-reading my MRQ2 books lately and remembering how much I enjoyed running that system... 9 years ago, or whatever). Skill Category Modifiers are my least favorite. Back in the 80s, when I was first introduced to RQ3, I loved them. Now I just find them fiddly.

I should re-read it. I never gave it much more than a skim ... 7 years ago... and didn't find it that interesting. The fact that it combined Elric! + supplements + RQ3 (all material I already had and wasn't pleased with re-buying) and that the layout and artwork were generally awful (IMO) didn't leave me with much of an impression. It seemed like a soup of random ideas thrown together into a shitty package. Might have been a bit too judgmental back then.

I haven't seen an authoritative list. Glancing at the Magic World pdf, MW includes or modifies the following: The inclusion of Cultures, as @rsanford stated. Skill Category Modifiers. Occupation skill allotments instead of a large pool of skill points to spend. Additional Occupations (maybe just Astrologer?) Different base skill levels Different skill success levels.

Though I voted for Elric! as my favorite, I'd have to think over on whether I'd use it as-written to run a Moorcock multiverse campaign now. Or any sort of dark fantasy or sword & sorcery campaign with the system. (And I rarely run fantasy campaigns these days, so it's mostly just theorizing). I'd be tempted to fiddle with the system a lot: Change the chargen so that Occupations provided competent skill level bases off the bat (more like the Delta Green rpg, or the earlier versions of Stormbringer). Re-tool the skills, condensing some. Figure out if I want to change the combat success ranges away from the 1% Impale, 20% Critical, etc.

I'm going to have to pull EoM off my shelf and re-read it. Been a long time since I've looked at it. Still have all my MRQ2 books, and had a blast with the system about a decade ago. I have mixed feelings about the high starting combat skills. Two highly-skilled combatants going at it can be boring and take forever. But a lone, skilled PC taking on multiple opponents/mooks, and parrying multiple blows can be fun. But, perhaps that's better reflected by keeping skill levels under control and dropping the penalty to parry successive attacks.

Elric! It was my first real exposure to Stormbringer. (I knew a guy in the mid-80s that had the 2e boxed set, which I remember looking through but we never played). The system was so appealing and intuitive. It compelled me to use it for homemade dark fantasy / sword & sorcery campaigns. I can't even say that I'm that much of a fan of Moorcock's Elric material. I've only read a couple of the books and the writing never really hooked me. But Elric! presented the setting and system in such an inspiring fashion that it really captured my imagination.

I would wager Earl Geier. I definitely recall the name from a number of Chaosium products from the 80s and 90s. CoC, Stormbringer, etc.

I'm not familiar with any on that list. But I didn't read many highly-rated Scifi books that were published this year, so that's not too surprising. I'm always looking for suggestions, though. What I did read from this year was Genesis (First Colony) and All Systems Red (Murderbot Diaries). I liked the latter more than the former, and have preordered the next book from the series.

Looks great. I'd rather store my campaign props and handouts in it than rulebooks. But.... ~$174 USD for that pledge level, plus ~$40 USD shipping to the US. Ouch.

Has there been any more word about a potential Kickstarter for a "deluxe" version of RQ3, in the same vein as RQC? I remember seeing something about that a while ago.

It wasn't until the Elric! rules set - that followed SB4e 3 years later - that shields got more of an emphasis. Weapons and shields both had HP defined in that edition and the benefits of shields were laid out more clearly: In this rules set, weapons were broken when their HP was equaled or exceeded when parrying a melee weapon. Shields suffered HP reduction when their HP was exceeded, and didn't break until their HP was 0.

Page 39 gives some advantages of using a shield: Normally, a Parry roll is halved if you're trying to parry a hand-held missile weapon (axe, javelin, rock, etc.) with a melee weapon. It's not really stated, but I'd assume you'd get your full parry using a shield. Also, there's a section on shields on Page 45, but the benefits are a little vague: Not really sure what that means.

Have you run Elric! straight or made any rules changes or used any house-rules to reflect Newhon? I've got a PDF of Lankhmar Unleashed and an adventure (Swords Against Sorcery) that I bought years ago but haven't looked at in a while. What else was released for Mongoose's Lankhmar line (MRQ1 or 2), and what was worthwhile?

Only the first attack/bullet. Per page 215 of the BGB: Though, I should add: if you're doing autofire spread across a number of targets, then each target has the potential to suffer 1 crit/special.

I've got a copy of SB4 that I got for free with an order from Wayne's Books. It's an edition that I've never played, or much looked at. What's your impression of it?

Can I hire you to be my personal forum translator? You do a better job of getting my questions across than me.

That doesn't so much impact me - I've got spare copies of the Elric! core book, and legally purchased PDFs of a number of the books. I can compile books for the players, or provide them with PDF-fragments as necessary. And, honestly, I prefer that over directing players to making a purchase - I can drop the rules that I'm not using, or add in house-rules without having them purchase a core and telling them what to ignore because I'm not using it. (If they want to run Elric/MW themselves, then that's a different matter - buying MW would be the best route for them).