hanszurcher

On 2/4/2023 at 6:30 AM, Joerg said:

@hanszurcher That's supplements by Pelgrane and/or Chaosium. There is a huge fan-created project about the Arrolian territories of Fronela in the final stages of layout and editing, scheduled to be released as the next issue of the Escalation fanzine, for free. Evan Franke aka @eknarfer , the main designer on the project, has been releasing art previews on the RuneQuest facebook group and probably elsewhere too. Perhaps it's about time to share them here, too?

Thanks for the resources. I didn't even  know 13th Age existed until I saw the 13th Age Glorantha deeply discounted book on Chaosium's web store. Yeah, I think sharing those art previews would be a fantastic idea. Cheers.

Well that's a bummer. Glad I got the hardcopy before it became a rare treasure, though.

I do not remember saying the books where racist, but the racial attitudes of the 20s are evident. The Footprints under the Window, The Mark on the Door and The Hidden Harbor Mystery are probably the worst offenders. For the time most of the stories are quite liberal. Though whether or not this stems from an attempt by the authors to be more inclusive or the publishers drive to appeal to a wider audience is up for debate.

I would agree. The original tales are superior to the rewrites. But I prefer the Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators series.

But a bigger die size doesn't translate into grnulatity, thats a misconception. In most D100 systems, most of the time, there is no difference between a 33 and a 34. Most veraints of BRP use only 4 or 5 grades of results; Critical Success, Specia Success, Success, Failure and Fumble. SO just rolling a bigger die doesn"t mean much. Look at RQ2 (the real RQ2), it used a D100, but kept skills in 5% increments. It was practically the same as rolling a D20.

I would agree, mostly. But we're not talking about the system.

It's not really combat-related, but another rule question I can't find an answer to has come up:

How does one determine whether an episode of insanity is "Mythos-induced" for the purposes of increasing the Cthulhu Mythos skill?

A. It doesn't really matter for Permanent or Temporary Insanity, but with regards to Indefinite Insanity, approximately what percentage of the characters' Sanity loss needs to come from mythos sources to qualify for the skill increase?

As long as the insanity is the result of a Mythos encounter (the final straw) it doesn't really matter. But not a lot of non-Mythos encounters will deprive a PC of a 1/5 or more SAN in the span of a hour. If you find this happening you or your players may want to slow down a bit.

B. While it seems clear that insanity resulting from encounters with Mythos related creatures ought to improve the victim's Cthulhu Mythos skill, it has never been entirely clear to me just what monsters qualify. I do have access to "Malleus Monstrorum" and considered that, perhaps, the creatures listed under "Creatures of Legend & Folklore" might be disqualified, but guidance from more experienced Keepers would be appreciated in this instance.

This is really up to you. But Elder gods, Outer Gods and Great Old Ones will definitely qualify. Independent and Servitor Races in all probability should count as well.

Just remember that having some Cthulhu Mythos skill is a good thing, having a lot of Cthulhu Mythos skill is not. I like long campaigns so I award Mythos skill very slowly. I also take it pretty easy on the characters with SAN loss, unless they do something obviously fool hardy.

Hmmm granularity, anyone up for a d1000?

I've seen d1000 used in wargames and some random-roll rpg charts. You can get them in stores or roll three d10s.

The thing I like best about d100, flip-flop dice in Unknown Armies.

Edit: They also sell d10000s, never seen them in use though.

Oh?

The people I know run both of those as written; though there has been some contention as to whether using the aging rules is a good idea, given the widely varying power levels it yields.

The Improvement Roll Modifier is supposed to reflect on the relationship the adventurer has with the community and peers. I think this is better handled through role-play.

I always thought aging rules where silly, more so now that I'm actually aging. But I suppose if your playing a generation spanning campaign they have their place. So players know when to retire their characters.

Granularity comes to mind as the biggest difference. I imagine this is the sort of thing the OP poll was looking for.

That highlights an interesting cultural difference between the 1920s, the '70s, and today. ...

And the racial attitudes of the 20s. Though not nearly as harsh some of those early Hardy Boys books would have sat well with a few of Lovecraft's views.

That aside, the early books where also somewhat anti-establishment.

And afterwards, our dad would come home and beat us to sleep with a broken bottle, and we were happy for it.

"...and from that point the conversation got weird."

Of course... But both are very connotated. When you say D20 to someone who knows roleplaying games, he immediately thinks to D&D. And when you say D100, he immediately thinks to the BRP system... I'm sure that at least one voting in two was influenced by this connotation.

Sure. That was brought up in the original thread.

I always thought Shaun Cassidy had a certain Innsmouth look about him.

FEH! You yunguns and your fancy d10s! I remember when we had to use a pair of d20s! And roll them up hill, in both directions!

SDLeary

In a blizzard, with two sprained wrists.

Yes, this.

But regarding the lesser matter of physical dice, I have some die-in-die d100's (a little d10 inside a larger clear-plastic d10) - which are cute.

That sounds cool. I don't think I've ever seen one of those.

Yeah, I actually have one, but I had to glue it together because the clear outside came apart one time. I hardly ever use it though, two d10 just work much better!

I gave one of those a roll in store once. Hated it. But then again I'm getting a little old. I agree, d10s all the way.

...

The main difference between D&D and the BRP system is not the type of dice used.

The poll isn't about the system. It is about the dice, the mechanical portion. Not D&D vs. BRP.

Now add some "Stubbs the Zombie".

Like cast the PCs as re-animated US soldiers, part of the CIA's shadowy Project West. Fighting crazed Nazi scientists, alien threats and the commie menace. I see potential.

OK. I'm pretty excited about Atomic Age Cthulhu so I'd probably go with a mixture of Boys from Brazil and Amazonian Bat-People tribe legends. A crazy Nazi scientist has devised a way to turn people into bat-monster super soldiers via the bite of specially irradiated vampire bat carriers. Perhaps he has devised a way to control his batty minions through high-frequency sonic waves. This same scientist may be unwittingly influenced by Mi-go or some other alien conspiracy.

Well, its an idea.

Vampire Bat Bites Help Shield Peruvians from Rabies - Yahoo! News

Seems isolated jungle tribesmen in Peru have a natural immunity to rabies because they get bitten by vampire bats so often. What sort of CoC adventure could you make out of that?

That's cool. With the prevalence of bat based mythology and deities in South America... The Bat-people of Peru.

But the Mayan's have the best bat related legends. Right into present day Chiapas. Including some awesome tales of men that are seduced by a female bat, slowing becoming a bat monster themselves.

I Peru, the Incas associated bats with royalty.

I never use the Improvement Roll Modifier and I thought everyone ignored the aging rules.

Hmm.

I was thinking keep hit locations, hit points, and damage, and just assign point costs to "hit point chunks" and damage modifiers; and then let the players buy with their starting pool of points.

But yes, so far I'm liking this idea.

It sounds useful and modular, and so far I'm not seeing any drawbacks.

Some friends of mine have been playing BRP sans Characteristics for some time now. They seem to like it.

You know, I really like the heft of the d20. Something satisfying about rolling it. But I seem to have a boatload of d10's all over the place. Probably from playing ORE, Nemesis/Reign. And Unknown Armies, Call of Cthulhu...

Anyone ever actually use a d100? I mean like one of those Zocchihedron's you see at stores every so often.

I like d20. I like d100. Which one we would play is entirely up to mood.

FYI, there has been a discussion about 7th edition at rpg.net, including a link to an overview by the writers.

Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition Authors' Seminar - Recording

One of the pending changes is to ditch the Resistance Table.

Wow! They really are going for something other than the regular cosmetic changes. This sounds really interesting.

I hear the folks behind Delta Green are also planning their own version of the CoC rules system as well.

I'll sort of miss the Resistance Table though. Sort of.

Just curious, which edition are each of you CoC fans currently playing? I understand the changes among editions have (so far) been minor and incremental. Both 5th and 6th are available at a discount in Chaosium's Boo-Boo Books section.

I've played 2nd, 4th and 6th edition over the years. Looks like 7th will be breaking my run on even.

The price is a bit steep, but we need to recognize that the days when roleplaying games were mass-market publications with large print runs are well and truly over. Pretty much all RPGs are niche hobby products these days and print runs above 10,000 units are extraordinarily rare - and even breaking 5,000 units can be a struggle. In this climate, the price of RPGs inevitably go up. In the long term, print-on-demand may change this situation, but the technology and distribution networks aren't quite there yet (although they are very, very close!). ...

I don't think this sort of thing is really going to come as a surprise to anyone. If their is one thing I've learned in 50+ years, prices do indeed go up. In this instance RuneQuest6 has outpaced my budgetary constraints.

I posted this on RPG.net day or two earlier: The price seems reasonable for a RPG product from a small publisher in this day in age. The reason I will not be buying it at this price point is because it is largely the same set of rules I purchased in RuneQuestII and Legend and OpenQuest (and Elric of Melnibone and BRP). While I'd like to see Mysticism, the various tweaks and rules for investigation...not for $62.00. I had trouble convincing myself to pick it up when I was expecting a $40.00 price tag. Also, not in the market for a huge amount of GM and player guidance.

But if it's anything like Loz and Pete's other work I expect it to be excellent.

I haven't decided what I'm going to do with that $40.00 yet. Either pick up Unhallowed Metropolis Revised or have my Danners resoled for an up-coming mushroom picking excursion to the Olympic Rainforest. Maybe RQ6 will be more successful competing for my $$$ next year.