Vorax Transtellaris

How's The Savage North coming along?

Since I know that Cthulhu Dark Ages players are always interested in supplements for the setting it's especially nice that you added material to use this with CoC! :thumb:

Perhaps Chaosium should make this a bit more clear from their description on chaosium.com...

Looks nice and neatly structured! :thumb:

I don't want to rush anyone but since I am not that much into general fantasy now the wait is for Savage North!

From what I read Thailand seems to possesses some beautiful places, but the heat keeps me from going there. Is there any way of avoiding it? In Mexico, for example, me and my gf, who was born and raised there, usually stick to altitudes above, say, 1500 meters. It's actually possible to visit a lot of placesd and see a lot of stuff without going lower. Would a strategy like that work in Thailand?

(...)I will have to consider opening a OpenQuest category in the Review Section then! :cool:

SGL.

There are areas of the forest that are infected with a chaos/evil magic called the Une. Twisted forms of giant mushrooms, lichens and mosses are heavy there. Never thought about them having hive-mind intelligence though. mm.... Could be the seeds for an adventure.

Once The Green is finished and I get my hands on a copy I may come up with a sentient fungus scenario. The language barrier prevents me from writing it all out in a decent way, but I may be able to upload some rough guidelines. We'll see.

Uh oh, this seems to be turning into the next opposed skill roll mechanic discussion...

Oh well. The problem with the resistance table is that it doesn't allow for contests of attributes or skills between more than two people. I have never actually used the resistance table yet, but would probably only use it for contests between one character and, for example, an object or a poison or something. In case of characters in a contest of attributes I prefer to use the same mechanic that I use for skill contests, using (attribute x appropriate modifier) instead of a skill.

About the sentient fungus:

I don't mean an animated mushroom, I mean a fungus that has a kind of hive mind which can perhaps telepathically communicate with or influence the minds of people who come in contact with part of it, perhaps by merely touching it, by inhaling its spores or by eating its fruitbodies (the actual mushrooms).

Some fungi are among the biggest lifeforms in existence. The mycelium can spread over the whole surface of a forest, with each cell sharing the same DNA.

Imagine these cells forming a kind of intelligence. It would be almost as if The Green itself was sentient. Whoa! :cool:

This fungus could be revered as a kind of deity by some of the forest dwellers or it could be perceived of as a sacred medium by which to communicate with The Green itself.

Fungi are not plants, by the way.

I guess in CoC quick and dirty results are appropriate. Skill levels don't get higher than 99% in CoC.

I just found out that this mechanic is actually mentioned as an optional method in the BRP rulebook. And it, too, mentions the mathematics part as the major disadvantage of this method. A calculator or person who can do fast subtractions deals with this disadvantage quite effectively.

Apart from that, the method is quick and intuitively clear.

I don't really see the need of using levels of success. In Call of Cthulhu an impale is a special success on certain combat skills (pointed hand-to-hand weapons and firearms), causing the weapon to inflict damage twice. There's no other use of levels of success and therefore no shifting of levels of success and attack-parry-dodge combat matrix slowing down and complicating things.

Any news on this?

I'm not exactly keen on high fantasy and I really hate elves/elfs and hobbits. I also find the usual pretentiousness that seems to be a trademark of the genre highly annoying. This pretentiousness, in my experience, contrasts strongly with the sense of 'humor' some players tend to develop, which is downright silly. A notable example: a dwarf drowning because he refused to take off his armour...

Now I don't mind silly, but it just doesn't fit with the pretentiousness, unless the pretentiousness is also taken lightly.

Therefore, since the genre obviously is difficult to take seriously, as a player, I do enjoy totally over-the-top fantasy settings such as Warhammer FRP - a friend of mine once referred to it as the Heavy Metal of Fantasy Roleplaying .

As a GM I stay clear of the genre. There's already too much high fantasy gaming going on, to my taste. I don't want to contribute to that.

Though I had a lot of fun playing Shadowrun, it got boring as soon as the GM started taking things too seriously, making everything dark and ominous. I guess the fact that there's dwarves and trolls running around and dragons leading multinational corporations for me implies that trying to make things seem dark and ominous at the same time conflicts heavily with the suspension of disbelief.

OK, thanks for the clarifications. Since I am thinking of using this as a kind of prehistoric setting for my Call of Cthulhu universe it would be practical if I could do it using one and the same book and not need the OQ book specifically. That's why I asked.

As for the 'vinkingness', I was just wondering how much of this is 'Conan' and how different it is from, say, BRP Mythic Iceland.

Still very much interested, so keep us informed. :thumb:

(..)I will have to consider opening a OpenQuest category in the Review Section then! :cool:

SGL.

Yes. But what exactly would be the problem of doing that.

And as for the maths: you usually don't have to calculate the exact difference to know who won, you only have to estimate which of the differences is bigger, which usually is not very hard to do.

You either succeed or you don't. The bigger the difference between your roll result and your skill level, the better you perform.

Highest roll equal to or under your skill level just feels weird.

I didn't want to start another thread discussing the Opposed Skill rolls mechanic as in the BRP rulebook. I am aware of the official rules and understand them. I just wanted to see if anyone had anything to say about this 'mechanic'.

What I hoped to get was some useful commentary on the differences between comparing (skill - roll result) and comparing level of success.

I'd like people to point out to me any drawbacks or disadvantages there could be to using the following rules for opposed skill rolls:

In a contest, wouldn't it be possible to just compare the players' (skill level - roll result)? The player who succeeds by the highest number wins the contest. On a tie, the player with the highest skill level wins.

In those cold nordic lands I would certainly wear a bit more clothing than the mere loincloth of that barbarian dude in the cover illustration. But joking aside, this does sound very interesting. If I can find a way of ordering the book through a Dutch webstore that doesn't require the use of a credit card you an consider me a customer. :thumb:

Will the OpenQuest corebook be needed to run this or will the BRP rulebook suffice? And how 'viking' will this setting be?

Hello DiracSquid, I trust you're already aware of the Call of Cthulhu & Lovecraft forums at - Yog-Sothoth for Lovecraft & Cthulhu -? Definitely check them out if you haven't already!

(...)I received a Private Message from another board member named Jessie, who appears to have as little real presence here as I do.(...)

I don't know if 'Jessie' is a legitimate member, but this struck me as being a bit suspicious.(...)

It was mainly the impossible appearance of the character sheets that made me go alt + F4, not necessarilly the d20-system. I'm not even knowledgable enough about d20 to have a clear opinion about it. Let's say the sheet doesn't look to me as if the system makes for smooth play during combat situations. I also got the impression it works with character levels, which IMHO have to be one of the silliest inventions in roleplaying ever.

Anyway, a BRP version of Conan would be very nice for mixing it with Call of Cthulhu so bring it on! :thumb:

FYI there was also a GURPS Conan supplement. Unfortunately it's OOP because even if you don't use GURPS many of the supplements are pretty good for ideas and information.

GURPS Conan

When I checked for Conan RPGs and saw the char sheet of Mongoose Conan I quickly pressed alt + F4. I didn't know it was a d20 based system :shocked: and god those sheets look impossible! :eek:

I was also wondering how you would handle a contest of attributes between more than two people, using the Resistance table.