ThornPlutonius

I dropped my ballot off a few weeks ago.  Now, more than ever, every American must vote.

2 hours ago, Lloyd Dupont said:

Master of Orion... An old game popular with us oldies.

[snip]😮

Thanks! It almost took half a century.. 😕 but here you go, better late than never!  

Thank you for the clarification!  May you have much time to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

53 minutes ago, Lloyd Dupont said:

The good news is the bad times are over (diet and lifestyle changes) and back into homework

 

Currently BRP+MoO and maybe some programming later...

"MoO"?

Congratulations for making the needed changes and finding your way out of the bad times!

2 hours ago, Ian Absentia said:

That's the direction I started going, imagining a situation where there's not a clear chain of command, or where the chain breaks down and needs to be re-established.  It's almost a personal horror scenario in a bottle in and of itself, not suited to most gaming situations where you're just looking for a simple and consistent mechanic to resolve a momentary situation and then move on.  Even still, a fairly simple Resistance roll could be used to determine if your player group pulls together or frays apart.  Generally speaking, a strong and determined will can easily overcome a weak and panicking will; the situation gets dicier when there's not a lot of difference between the weakest and strongest links.  Middle-link players might even be allowed to augment the rolls one way or the other.

!i!

Indeed.  How important is the decision?  Like combat, do you just blow the mooks off or build drama and tension through an extended combat.  Is this the group deciding to stop to rest for a few moments or a point in the evolving story where the decision has a major effect on What Happens Next and calls for High Drama.

14 hours ago, David Scott said:

The OP was going for

so not a weakest link rule.

I started to knee-jerk apologize for misreading/misunderstanding.  Changed my mind.  Does the week link drag down or does the strongest lift up?  It is probably contextual, sometimes one, sometimes the other.  Perhaps that is a contest in and of itself.  Weakest vs Strongest to see which has the greatest influence in the moment.

9 hours ago, David Scott said:

There's all kinds of things you could try:

• use the highest POW+INT in the group for everyone
• or add 5% per person in the group so 4 people = +15% or make the bonus higher.
• change the action difficulty - difficult if on your own / Average with 5 or more people / Easy with 10 or more people

The lowest POW+INT would probably be better.  Weakest link and all.

2 hours ago, Conrad said:

Is it only available through the D101 webstore, or are FLGS stocking it? 😁

Print on Demand via Drive Through RPG (dtrpg).

9 hours ago, RogerDee said:

My point was doing the Mythos through lens of Aquelarre, so Cthulhu does not need to stroll around, but more a case of making the Aquelarre beasties more alien or horrible - which when you look at the some of OT angels - they're particularly terrifying.

Or just making some angels look a bit different, and more well alien, and inhuman.

https://www.artstation.com/bugmeyer

This is the kind of thing I mean. Now these are Peter Mohrbacher's angels, none of which look particularly angelic. What do they look is Lovecraftian, and utterly alien.

Hence a way to make Aquelarre more Lovecraftian.

 

Or as they look in Kult: Divnity Lost.

5 hours ago, Gattamelata said:

I think the background in Aquelarre have its own flavour, and would not try mixing Cthulhu mythos into it (besides there is already CoC DA). 

Indeed.  Cthulhu has been done to death.  Leave it out of Aquelarre.  One should be able to do much with the Christian mythology, especially as it saturated the minds and lives of those who existed in the covered era.

Looks like I will live without them.

1 hour ago, jajagappa said:

They are shown in the video in the OP.

Thank you.

Are they going to be shown to us?

12 hours ago, Mike M said:

Those should have already been done - I'll chase this up and get a new PDF out asap.

I got my pdf for this and other Chaosium books via Bits & Mortar.  Will this update be pushed to that venue, too?

On 8/13/2020 at 5:09 AM, Alabak2002 said:

Even when the Core book is a mastodontic book, there are lots of things that had to be left for later

Among the other books already published in Spanish, one (Daemonolatreia) expands the lore of Aquelarre, greatly detailing the angelic and demonic ranks, their inner works, hierarchy and how humans relate to them, adding a new skill, Demonology.

Other book (Ars Malefica) covers the "old ways" that run apart of judeochristian tradition, like preroman beliefs. There you have pagan gods, mythic creatures, witchcraft and sorcery that rival the powers of Hell

And then, there is Bestiarium Hispaniae, a 280 pages book with 120 new creatures from spanish tradition, more than able to fill any empty space remaining

Perhaps there's not such a thing as an Old One in Aquelarre, but since we are tralking about a game where an ill-treated dog bite could get you to the grave, all these monsters and ancient powers should suffice to get you entertained

I hope those books make it into English some day.  I know about Google Translate.  I just want to read them in my native language without the "on the fly" translation that will then require editing and translating into actual English.  Oh!  What might have been had not one particular man passed away.

With Glorantha being such a large world with so many rich possibilities, I've always thought it disappointing that Chaosium maintained such a narrow focus on such a small part of the world/setting.  That narrow focus appears to continue.  That written, I am sure Mr. Tweet will produce a volume that will be of great use to those who share Chaosium's narrow focus.

4 hours ago, Atgxtg said:

Because if reality we don't want the player characters to get killed off. It is counter productive to maintaining any sort of game. If you are familiar with the Paranoia RPG, imagine trying to rule a campaign in a setting where characters die off like they do in Paranoid but without clones to step in and take their place.

BTW, all RPGs protect the players characters from the world in which they exist to some extent. That's why you never see adventures where begining player characters go up against expert villains. Logically, it sahould happen, and logically the  PCs, especially starting ones, should run into NPCS who have them out skilled, but that rarely happens, as we all want the player characters to continue on.

It's part of the whole heroic character idea. We all want to see the heroes overcome the bad guys, yet if we ran it entirely fairly, the heroes would ususally get killed by better skilled, more numerous opponents.

I agree. You need a threat to keep the game exiciting.

Not necessarily. Look, let's say your are running an adventure where the players are on their toes, doing everything right, and then get killed off because some inept NPC with Firearms at 20% happens to roll a couple of 01s at extreme range. Yes it can happen, but the end result isn't all that satisfying.

Imagine how Star Wars would have worked out if Luke had been shot and killed by a Stormtrooper while trying to escape from Tatooine. It's pretty much movie over. The main hero is dead, and the secondary heroes are either captured (Leia) or reluctant to help (Han).

Also, imagine what happens in a typicval RPG if a player character gets killed off five seconds into the first fight and has to stop and write up another character. Especially in a game where characters have special talents. If the group had someone who could fly an airplane and that character goes down in the firefight on the cargo jet, at 20,000 feet, it could easily be game over.

 

Now this ins't to say that player characters should always be protected, just that for certain types of games it might be necessary to give them some partial script immunity, especially in more cinematic campaigns, in order to keep the right feel for that setting. It's much the same with Super hero RPGS. In real life big strong buys who fall out of skyscrapers tend to die when they hiut the ground. In comics, they shatter the concrete, make a hole, and get up a bit dazed. 

[I'd reply point by point, as you did to my post, but I don't know how to do that and get the formatting that your comment has.]

I prefer a sandbox to a prepared adventure.  Let the players have their characters discover where the danger is and when to run away...or charge in to a glorious bloody death! 

NPC gets a lucky shot?  No problem.  It happens, but not often.  So, no worries.  It is what "Hero Points" (or whatever a given game calls them) are for.

I am not terribly interested in the "heroic player" idea.  I am also not interested in superhero games.  Nor am I interested D&D and its derivatives and evolutionary descendants.  Been there and quickly grew tired of that style of play.

Star Wars would have been a different story.  So, what?  Part of what I enjoy about RPGs is adapting to unexpected circumstances, both as a GM and as a player. Let the story emerge with strange unexpected twists and turns.  Let's see what the players can figure out and enjoy the journey.

Create multiple characters before play.  Figure out how to work the alternate into the mix.  Skill sets change?  Adapt, improvise, and overcome.   Perhaps the original goal needs to be delayed until players can find a way back to that path.  Or, perhaps it is abandoned as new opportunities are discovered.

Enjoy your style of play!  I acknowledge that it is popular.  Nobody is required to agree with me.

19 hours ago, Atgxtg said:

Yes, that's actually one of the good reasons for games where only the players roll. I have seen player characters take a crtical hit from the first attack from a minor NPC at the start of a campaign, and it is quite frustrating, and can stop a campaign dead before it can even get started. Still, this is the system where Rurik Runespear got killed by a trollkin. 

I don't understand wanting to protect the player characters from the world in which they exist.  If the threat does not exist, if they face no challengers, I do not see the point of playing.  A low level "mook" actually scores a victory against a player character?  Great!  Keep them on their toes, humble them a bit, remind them that they are not gods who can do as they will without consequences.  

How can the campaign be dead from such an incident?  I do not understand that.

It may help you to take a look at  Mythras Imperative (free pdf) or the full Mythras rules.  Formerly Rune Quest 6th Ed., Mythas adds Effects that are invoked based upon relative success levels.  They include subtle tactics, enhanced aim, damage, etc., based upon style if weapon.  I am not trying to steer you away from Renaissance D100, just suggesting a source for ideas that may help you to finesse the feel of fencing.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you for the update!

*cough* RD100 International Version *cough*

My condolences regarding the crowdfunding campaign. 

Good fortune to you!

Good luck!

/cough/ M-Space /cough/