Jason D

New replies for comments that have come up since I started the above epic-length post: g33k You don't need all five pregens to succeed. You could even play it with as few as one or two, depending on how cautious they behave. In order of relevance/usefulness to the scenario, I list them as Harmast, Vasana, Yanioth, Vishi Dun (the shaman), and Vostor and Sorala tied for last place. The suggested minimum is a suggestion, not a requirement. Psullie Yes, assume 50/50 for any paired runes not described. Harmast, as played, is a fascinating guy, proud yet pragmatic, a bit of a chip on his shoulder yet fully willing to cut a deal when necessary. Should he survive, he'll make a fine clan chieftain. In every version of the playtest I've run, he's instrumental in resolving the negotiations w. Idrima at the end.* * None of my players have ever fought her, though to be fair, each group has had at least a few RQ/HQ players who know the setting well enough to know why it would be a bad idea.

Hey everyone - Just back from a convention and am happy to see some vigorous discussion on the Quickstart. There are way too many replies to do them singularly, and I find multi-quoting and breaking up quotes to be needlessly fiddly on this forum software (sorry!), so I'm just going to do a big text dump replying to many comments on this thread. First off, to clarify, this is not the final version of the RQ rules. Some stuff's been simplified for ease of play and some material was excluded or substituted (for example, Sorala has sorcery in the core rulebook, but it was easier to just give her spirit and rune magic for the quickstart). Every skill not used in the events of the QS was removed, and every non-applicable spell was also kept off the sheets. Furthermore, the QS version of the rules is an extract of the state of the rules from about four months ago, and the core rulebook has a great deal of polishing and tweaking since then, and will continue to be refined until it's ready to go to print. The QS is also very, very cramped. We cut everything that wasn't necessary for completion of the adventure. We also didn't want to include anything on the adventurer sheets that wasn't relevant to the scenario or to support the setting and background. It is also a quickstart intended to be a preview of the game for playing a single scenario, not a replacement for the core rulebook. There are many more examples in the core rulebook and gameplay systems are explained in more detail. So, keep that in mind, here's a host of replies to questions, and clarifications: styopa The supplemental character is an assistant shaman. Your movement speed is based on what you're doing during combat. If you're engaged in a combat activity, whether parrying, dodging, attacking, or shooting a melee weapon, you're at half movement speed. I am not sure where you're getting the impression that "engaged toons basically don't get to move at all". Could you provide an actual text reference to that? The rules state pretty clearly that "Those moving up to half of their usual movement allowance may also participate in melee, cast a spell, etc." Not much need for a weapons table when everyone's weapons are described on their adventurer sheets, and the NPCs have their weapons. When failing a parry, the full damage is rolled and compared to the weapon's HP. If they exceed, the weapon is broken. If not, it loses 1 HP. That's clearer in the core rules. Since no one in the adventure has Heal 6 and there is no immediately close temple of Ernalda, any severed limb is "irrevocably maimed"... but then the section after that explains what conditions the limb can be repaired/replaced. The adventure takes place over 8-24 hours, so no time for healing rate to become relevant. We did want to suggest that, yes, the rules cover natural healing. Not relevant to the adventure, though. No, you can't cast someone else's spell if you have their focus. You don't know the spell. Not everyone wants tattoos, either... it's a question of personal preference. You don't need to see the focus, just concentrate on it. The core rules cover proportional healing rates... we wanted to keep math simple. Yes, you can use Meditate repeatedly to "speed recover" magic points. That's one of the things the skill is for. The description of Farsee is clearer in the core rules. Visibility - if you can't see a spirit, you can't cast spells against it. It is however subject to the potential magic aspect of a physical attack once it's visible. Again, we didn't want to go into too much depth here, as fighting Lannike is an edge case. You need to pick whether you're in spirit or physical combat. The downloadable QS character also comes with more rules for spirits and spirit combat. Sean_RDP As Jeff mentioned, Animal Lore is a broader and simultaneously deeper topic... the adventurers know the characteristics of their herd animals, not visual identification of random other creatures. theWoozle That depends on the GM style. Some people ask for declarations, then resolve actions (the suggested system) and others just start a count-up. I tend to do the latter once people know the system. The DEX ranks are there for spellcasting, and the SIZ rank was put there so that if for some reason someone uses a weapon not on their sheet, the GM could figure out the proper SR without too much hassle. If an NPC doesn't have a Base SR, it was basically because it wasn't viewed as essential, or could be easily derived through consulting another NPC or adventurer. Might have been an oversight, as well. These things happen. Jonas Carthalo has Spirit Combat 95%. His fetch has 80%. Yanioth is an apprentice priestess, not a priestess. It says so on the top line of her adventurer sheet. She follows the rules for a starting character. She's also a bit arrogant and inflates her credentials a bit in her intro. She's middling with a bow (has provided fire support in every session I've run of this), great with magic, and her role as a representative of an Earth goddess has ALWAYS been highly useful in the resolution of the encounter with a cthonic daughter of Mharan Gor. theWoozle The apprentice shaman character comes with spirit combat rules. Basically it's an opposed roll, and winner does damage. In the core rules, there's more info and options. stypoa If you're not engaged in combat, it's usually easier to fire arrows quickly at a foe than it is to attempt the ongoing set of maneuvers, steps, positioning, etc. that represent an attack. The description of combat at the top of page 13, column 1, should indicate how much is happening during an actual melee. Yes, crits and specials include the damage modifier. Yes, in some cases, in the quickstart you will do more damage with one than the other. The core rules contain different special results per weapon damage type, ranging from impales, crushing, to slashing. You can't pick which result you achieve, any more than you can choose to fumble versus failing. Good catch with the shield and projectile weapons. The correct usage is in the core rulebook. I'm not sure where you're getting that a knockback is a bull rush. You don't need to make any movement to attempt a knockback, which is the definitive characteristic of a bull rush. In trying to keep things simple with thrown weapons, they've perhaps been made too complex. We'll examine the core rules and make sure it's clear. Yes, Rune spells evoke the gods and the Runes themselves, and activate at the speed of thought. They go first (bigger Rune spells taking slightly longer). I'm not sure what's unclear about "Rune spells always take effect at strike rank 1." It will be difficult to "remove reference to illusion spells" as the booklet is in print. Fixable for the download, though. The "2nd kind of meditation" is the same as the 1st kind. See the description of the skill on page 12. The description at the top of page 20 is explicitly talking about its role in restoring magic points. Earthpower, like most Rune spells, lasts 15 minutes. The top of page 21 says "Unless the spell description says otherwise, all Rune spells are passive with a duration of 15 minutes". The extra POW goes away at the end of the spell's duration. It's not a permanent thing. Not having a D after the spell description is an oversight, though, and it's clearer in the core rules. Darkwalk... not sure what's confusing about that. If you're outside the range, you're "visible", though you're likely still standing in shadow and/or darkness so you might be detected normally. Pathwatch is focused on the caster, as long as they're awake. Spell Trading works for whatever Rune spells desired, as long as both parties agree. Yes, elementals are very tough. Their summon costs and the size of elementals available to each cult have been balanced since the QS was released. However, in the QS, players have discovered that the elementals are not the wisest choice to summon against a hungry Earth goddess. Rock lizards have always had a DEX of 2d6+6, faster than humans on average (13 vs. 10.5). Cows, on the other hand, have DEX 2d6 (av. 7). The relative scarcity of food in the Badlands has driven the particular rock lizards to extraordinary behavior. The base for Animal Lore is 05, representing general knowledge picked up from around the world. Only Vasana has any experience dealing with cavalry, and her Ride skill encompasses caring for her bison. Sorala is a revolutionary, having taken part in mass combat on the front lines (a bonus to Battle came up in her character generation process). She's also widely read and has picked up a variety of skills through her studies. Farm was one of the ones she chose. All but one of the sample adventurers are from the house playtest campaign, and they represent the core rules being used to create starting characters. Vasana's Truestone isn't relevant to the particular encounter, admittedly, but it was included for flavor. The storage point crystals came from background rolls. GamingGlen The core rules were anything but a simple cut-and-paste job. The sections represented span roughly 180 pages spanning 11 chapters in the core rules, condensed down to 24 pages +2 (for the downloadable spirit combat expansion). Some mistakes have been made, as the timeframe on this was quite brief, but it would have been an unimaginable luxury to merely drop the text from the core rulebook into the quickstart as-is. See above about Sorala. They're from the house campaign and are as created using the core rules and player decisions. Vasana's having the wrong rune is a mistake, and we'll fix it in the corebook and for future printings or downloads. You can find, trade, or give away a spell matrix and use it, versus knowing it and having a personal focus. That's been the case since RQ2.

Two great tastes... together!

Thanks! Just to be clear, I made the pitch for doing a BRP/RQ version of Conan, as Modiphius has done dual-stat versions of games before, but they're moving away from that, as dual-stat books don't sell that much better and also require a lot more work.

That'll be covered in the Gamemaster's Guide.

You can certainly join an associated cult, and that cult's Rune magic will become available to you, but your Rune points are tracked separately. If a Rune spell is offered by multiple cults, you can pick which Rune point pool you're using when you cast the spell.

That will come.

Correct. You can make sacrifices of permanent POW to your cult/god, and these will become dedicated Rune points for that god/cult. You can have Rune point pools for each god/cult you are a member of and make sacrifices for. When you join a cult, you automatically sacrifice 1 point of POW, so you've got at least 1 point. Starting adventurers generally have 3 Rune points - more experienced adventurers have more, and based on background rolls you might end up with additional Rune points available. When you cast a Rune spell, you can cast any of the cult's Rune spells you know (many are taught to all initiates, while others are for Rune Priests, Rune Lords, and the ever-elusive Rune Lord-Priests). You announce how many of your Rune point(s) you're going to spend, and roll for your affinity for that Rune. Typically, this affinity will be pretty high (70%+) so it's usually a success. If the roll fails, you don't spend the Rune point(s). If you are boosting the Rune spell with magic points, the magic points are lost. If you fumble, the Rune points are lost. You can regain spent Rune points with Worship rolls on cult/god holy days, maintaining holy sites, and creating votive images of your god and placing them on sacred ground (temple, etc.). The amount you get back varies, but on many holy days even a failed Worship roll merits a return of Rune points.

Just as a clarification... starting adventurers will have a bit of experience, but they won't be seasoned veterans on the edge of retirement, or even in their primes. They'll be around 21 or so, with a few skills in the 70%+ range, maybe one or two higher, a handful of spirit magic spells, not a lot of Rune points, and a fleshed-out backstory. They may have fought in a battle or two, seen a few big things, maybe even earned some passions like Loyalty, Hate, Love, and even gotten a bit of Reputation... but there's still a long way to go before they're going to be ready for the Hero Wars. And it's possible to be not that experienced at all, if the background generation indicates so. I recently rolled up an adventurer with a "let the dice fall where they may" self-imposed restriction, and got a guy whose grandfather was a farmer. He promptly died the year my adventurer was born. Years of boring farm life later, I rolled to see what happened to the adventurer's father, and he died immediately as well, from plague. Four brothers and two sisters. The sisters died from plague. The brothers survived. More boring farm life later, with the only remarkable thing fighting some Lunars on their way out of Old Tarsh, and seeing a big cataclysmic event from around 50 kilometers away. (I think you can guess.)

I see your point, but the question was: "Though this is interesting, and gives flavor for the world, is it of any use in the adventure?" As the adventure is, as mentioned above, not in or around a temple or concerning a particular cult, such information would be just background info that the GM would either: 1) read to the players, or 2) ignore. Reputation is called for in the quickstart. As is the concept of Ransom. Abilities, though augmenting, might get to over 100%. There is a chance of gaining a new passion. The scenario covers travel, so it made sense to include it. Encumbrance affects everything an adventurer does, physically, hence its inclusion. The magic lists have been abbreviated. We also trimmed the skills list to remove things like Boating, etc. that would not be useful in the confines of the quickstart. 42 pages of rules plus adventure, six pages for pregens and their mounts/summonable creatures, and one for advertising/information. Again, it was a space consideration. If it doesn't/won't come up in the adventure, it's not in the quickstart rules.

The quickstart adventure is a short adventure, set in the wilderness away from any temples. The pregens are initiates and a priestess of six different cults: Orlanth, Issaries, Ernalda, Lhankor Mhy, Seven Mothers, and we are planning on an extra downloadable sixth character, an initiate of Waha. Cults get a LOT of attention in the core book, but for the purpose of quickstart, it didn't make any sense to include a dramatically abbreviated version of a cult only one of the pregens might worship.

It would be nice, but there just wasn't enough room. We literally went through shaving words off paragraphs to make things fit. The ultimate goal, also, was a good framework for an adventure in Glorantha, and since the adventure doesn't take place near any towns or temples, it didn't make sense to include it.

The Weitz brothers were working on a trilogy, but that was 10 years ago. The license was re-optioned in 2015, but I don't know if it's escaped development limbo. (The Wachowski bothers are just "The Wachowskis" now, also.)

No character generation rules. When you see the core RQ rulebook, you'll know why they could not possibly be contained in a quickstart. Here's an overview of the contents:

My involvement with Chaosium goes way, way back. I was involved on the Elric! playtest (and wrote a tiny bit of the book), there's that that other little thing I did, and I worked for no small amount of time on Interplanetary and an Eternal Champion sourcebook. Both of which I'd like to complete some day, but some things need to come into alignment for both to happen... and RuneQuest needs to get done! Thanks! That was a blast to write. I don't think that the system was the proper fit, but I had hoped that the line would flourish. Ah well... Well... the reason it got put aside was that it was just too complicated. Too crunchy. I think we made the right decision going more a la carte superpowers (and even those were highly configurable) but I think the real tragedy with the BRP line was that it just didn't get the support it needed in the form of a coherent strategy and core expansions. As the release schedule of Chaosium of old was almost entirely driven by the ability of freelancers to complete and hand in publishable manuscripts, it limited the options for BRP. The files are archived somewhere, but ultimately they just involved basic superpowers that allowed all aspects to be tweaked and purchased, so they were ridiculously configurable. It was the quintessential opposite of a "basic" system, and hence it was sidelined in favor of ready-to-play powers. And thanks for the kind words... again! Kinda sorta. It was initially built exclusively on the superpowers system from the boxed release of Superworld. Ben's excellent work on the Stormbringer 4th edition demon powers system was in fact derived from the very same source, IIRC. However, I didn't refer to Stormbringer at all for those rules... just SW. I referred to Champions, DC Heroes, Marvel Super Hero Adventure Game, Psi-World, Villians & Vigilantes, and probably half a dozen other supers games for inspiration, but I didn't look at SB for those rules. In the end, we went with a cleaned up and expanded version of the superpowers system from the Worlds of Wonder boxed set, which was much simpler.

Thanks! Ultimately, this is mostly a formalization of an existing relationship. I've been hard at work on editing and helping develop the new version of RuneQuest for almost half a year now.

Have procured one. Thank you all!

Just a question... does anyone have the Ringworld character sheet in .pdf? My copy's in storage in the USA, and it's a long, long flight away.

It would be fairly easy. The biggest differences are magic and skill caps. SB skills usually hit 100% and didn't get that much higher without magic or in extreme cases, and Elric! skill %s regularly exceeded 100%. Personally, I'd just play it by ear. If a weapon skill for a SoS/BS character should be extremely high (80%+), then double it. If it's lower than 60%, then probably leave it alone. I can't remember a lot of the NPCs in those two books, but you could probably swap them out with example characters from the Young Kingdoms Digest without too much difficulty.

I was told that it was merely a case of diminishing returns. Sales of Dragon Lords of Melnibone and the retitled Elric! version of Stormbringer were extremely low. I had been working on a big Multiverse hero sourcebook called The Eternal Champion, but was asked to put it aside and focus on BRP as sales just didn't justify more stuff in the game line.

Back when I was working on the BRP book, I suggested that we title the actual mechanical part of the game "The Chaos System" but no one in charge seemed to dig it.

I can say with a fair amount of confidence that I'll happily work on d%-based games until I retire, and probably past then. Even my work with Modipius began with a campaign for Achtung! Cthulhu, based on the d% Call of Cthulhu rules.

Hi folks! Yes, I was one of the people giving feedback on the BRP Essentials booklet. As far as I know, Jeff & company determined that it would be more expedient to begin with a core system (RQ4) and summarize it into an Essentials-style booklet than it would be to build a summarized game and try to expand it from there. I have done copious feedback on the in-progress first draft of RQ4, and have been working closely with Jeff. As we both live in Berlin and game regularly, it's been quite convenient.

The introductory adventure for Assault on the Mountains of Madness is a nice little standalone scenario featuring an Allied raid on a seemingly-deserted German submarine base on a remote Atlantic island. The campaign itself is much too beefy, but the intro would be a nice one-shot.