GamingGlen

My store, Adventure Game Store & Dragon's Lair, in south Florida participates in FreeRPG day. I've offered to run the RQ scenario.

I still have the original boxed sets, Humans and Non-humans. Only a very few of the humans sheets were torn off.

And rightly they should if you had.

I wrote most up quick, and ad-libbed what I hadn't finished during play (the triangle room's direction was one) of a simple dungeon for the PCs to find some sort of healing staff (found in the Fertility room). The other loot came about during play. The ruins, deep in an elven forest, had only been found by the elves and generally refused anyone to search there. But politics change and the PCs were allowed to search on the behalf of their clan. The elves didn't mention the large bear guarding the entrance to the place, the greeting room that leads to the two doors (the horns) that enter the Chaos room had been exposed to the elements and the bear used it as his lair. But a Befuddle spell got them past the bear. The Ruins of Eurmali (temple ruins of a long gone Eurmal cult) The rooms of this temple are shaped like runes, with one exception. Entry room (Chaos rune) has this poem on a wall: The Destiny Disk, comes with a risk. Rotate the wheel, Tired you shall feel. Point to the door, open, explore. Spend mana must, or door stays trussed. Death may await, and riches great. Chaos room (round with two curved hallways which leads to exit/entrance) In the middle sits a round horizontal solid wheel with seven spokes (a turnstile), which can line up with the other seven doors spread equally around the room. The Magic rune is carved into the top of the wheel turnstile but stylized somewhat like an arrow. Turning the wheel is how to open any door with a particular rune inscribed on it if the turnstile's Magic rune points to the door. Turning the wheel requires a opposed/resistance roll, total the Brawn of all helping to turn the wheel vs. 150 (or about 30 per individual in the room), each Mana (MP) spent adds 10% to Brawn skill. All contributors suffer a Fatigue level, unless critical success (01-05), and another Mana (magic point) must be spent (charges the Light spell to light up that particular room and hallway, or the Darkness spell for the Death room). Each door opens to a hallway Each hallway is 10 meters long, 2 m. wide, 3 m. tall, with a door at other end. Each hallway as a 5 degree slope downward from the central room (formible Perception check to spot the slope). Only one of the doors can be open at any one time. Rooms (the rooms are opposite based on the runes, i.e., Truth is opposite Illusion) Truth: library The walls are covered in groups of text etched into the stone, magical detection can see the text is magical. Reading one group of text will give a free Experience Roll for any INT-based non-magical skill. This could open up a new skill if desired. Add an additional 20 to the Experience Roll to determine success. Only one group can be read, after which all the texts will disappear for that individual. Disorder (the one room shaped as a square, Eurmal is quite ironic) The hallway has a trap. A large round boulder sits on the other end. A hole in the ceiling at this end with rusted hinges and rubble on the floor seems to indicate the trap had been sprung or broke. Instead, the floor is a seesaw, focal point near the boulder. Anyone stepping on the floor will cause the floor to sink suddenly causing the boulder to roll down onto the person. A successful Athletics check can avoid the 1D6 damage to 3 adjacent hit locations, choose whether leaping over the boulder at -20% or backwards out of the hallway. The boulder does not fit through either door. The room has a small oak chest, bound with bronze, that has an easy lock (+20% to open). Inside are 5D100 copper coins, a simple gold necklace worth 500 copper, a longsword with Fireblade spell, and a long blue dress that can cause a man to look like a woman (it's a magical disguise; perhaps a favorite of Eurmal?). Fertility: garden A small lit sun-light orb is against the ceiling in the center. The room is filled with plants, the largest are tree-like shrubs. Plants of note, only one of each fruit will have an effect: Blue smooth round berry bush, 2D6 berries, each berry restores 1D3 MP. Red oblong berry bush, 2D8 berries: restories 1 HP of a random location. Purple peach tree, 2D10 fruit: removes all fatigue. Tan string beans, 2D10 plants: removes one disease, can be kept for 1 week. Green onions, 2D10 plants: neutralizes one poison, can be kept for 1 week. (note: a "Staff of Healing" is this room, standing upright with a foot of space about it free of plants) Law The triangle-shaped room has the point at the door, 4 inches wide, door height. Vast treasure can be seen: piles of various mostly-gold coins, open chests full of jewelry and gems, gleaming swords, armor, and shields. It is an illusion. Nothing is in the room, not even air so anyone that actually gets in the room cannot breathe. A magical spell at the opening keeps any airflow from going through. (Eurmal and Law do not get along) (The PCs summoned a water elemental to go into the room and found out about the illusion) Illusion Shaped like a 3-leaf clover, each leaf has a stone statue fountain spewing water onto a small pool around the statue. The water seems to glow to each individual until that individual takes a drink. A person may only receive one benefit in this room. Roll randomly to determine which: 1D100 01-46: first option, 47-92: second option, 93-00: -2 POW, receive Illusion spell for one use, automatically cast when desired, 1/3 POW Magnitude & Intensity. -Pelican with fish in mouth, fish spewing: +1 STR or +1 INT -Alynx with leg up over a small bush: +1 DEX or +1 POW -Faerie bending a tulip to allow a bird to drink: +1 CHA or +1 CON Harmony Perfectly round domed room, stone floor is soft, but still stone. No markings. Anyone in the room feels at ease, and seems to hear soft music. Anyone staying in the room for 10 minutes or more has all fatigue levels removed, and one HP per location will heal. Then make a Willpower check to avoid falling into a deep sleep for 8D6 hours. Only a dispel magic vs 300 skill can cause the sleeper to awaken before then. Death No hallway as the rune itself forms sort of a hallway. Completely dark (Darkness spell but at double intensity), no light will shine in here, but any spell that detects magic will. A Death Spirit resides in here, attacks a random person. Death Spirit Lucath (the last cultist who refused to leave) INT 12, POW 12, CHA 12, (I rolled dice, all came up 12) Discorporation 74%, Spectral Combat 74%, Willpower 74% In the room is two joined crystal matrices, each matrix can hold 3 MP. (note: the other end of the room was broken into by burrowing rubble runners, after killing many Lucath gave up and ignores them now, thus crunching of small bones can be felt and heard when walking in the dark room). (note 2: how this long lost temple can be found: tracking rubble runners from elsewhere)

Dump the passions. Those didn't exist in previous editions, why use them now? I use the difficulty modifiers from MRQ2: -10, -20, -30, -40, etc. Much easier math. I've considered NOT rounding up for the critical chance, compare to the 10s digit (75% has a 7% chance to crit). You could probably go back to old RQ with special effects: they only happen on a crit, double the damage. In short, don't use all the messy details when teaching RQ to new players. You can add those back in later.

In fantasy art lingo, that means "increased chest proportions".

I've wondered about this particular female broo, found in GW's version of the RQ3 Monster book. Since I have several male broo miniatures, I checked around and got the Warmachine Cryx character Pirate Queen Skarre (PIP 34068) to be their leader. Now to get to putting it together (ugh) and painting it.

Interesting. But I figured other people would have different views. I choose the runes based on the Orlanthi pantheon if at all possible. Stasis was one that was hard to justify in that regard. Here's what I went with: scene 1: a ) mobility, b ) harmony, c ) law, d ) illusion, e ) truth, f ) fate, g ) harmony, h ) stasis scene 2 (the second has less importance): a ) illusion, mobility, b ) death, mastery, c ) trade, magic, d ) harmony, infinity, e ) fertility, luck, f ) fate, law I did have a scene 3 involving the elements, I went with a disaster in the making (air: tornado, fire: building on fire, water: giant wave, earth: rockslide) and they could pick one to avert plus a fifth option (supposedly Darkness) was to let things happen as they may (Fate). Since 4 of the 5 picked the Fate option I surmise it was not a good test.

My group is taking a break from Pathfinder (the regular GM is taking summer classes during our normal play time), so I'm introducing them to RQ. I'm using RQ6 as the base, with some MRQ2, and RQ3 for Glorantha references (Gods of Glorantha being top on the list) since I'm starting them in Dragon Pass as Sartar barbarians (down with Lunars!). I even look in the RQ2 hardcover book at times. Some things I'm finding are... 1) as much as I prefer setting-free rules, adopting RQ6 to Glorantha is a damn pain in the ass (read: lots of re-writing, mostly from GoG). (also, the RQ6 rulebook is way too wordy, but that's another topic) 2) Dragon Pass cult write-ups are spread all over the place. I have a lot of 3rd party publications as well as some of Stafford's notes. I feel like I'm working at the research and they (my players) are not even paying me. I don't even know how much they'll read (maybe I should ask?) even if I try to keep it condense down to basic rules. I hope there's a quick follow up supplement to the new RQ detailing more about Dragon Pass with all the Orlanthi pantheon cult writeups and perhaps a few others. If you're going to have a setting built into the rules there better be a lot of information about it somewhere besides on the internet (and from a game store owner's perspective, help me sell more books). D&D/PF have a near stranglehold on fantasy RPGs around here. 3) Due to watching new players making characters in Traveller and D&D/PF: quick start rules better be quick and concise. Maybe even have partial pre-gens or templates (want to play a barbarian warrior? Here's the skill points already allocated for that theme). I just looked at one of the Free RPG day sci-fi games which states they have quickstart character generation. HAH! It's spread about their comic-book-like presentation and confusing as they explain the game mechanics at the same time. IMO, it all sucks. I can come up with a better Traveller quick start system (working on one now), but I digress. As an example, the Issaries' spell Create Market I re-wrote for my RQ6 game: Create Market Area (tens of meters), Duration (hours), Rank Acolyte This spell creates an invisible protected zone. The boundary must be set with seven one-meter long staves carved with the likeness of Issaries before the spell is cast. This spell simulates the effects of the spells Clear Skies, Fortify (applies to structures used for the sale of goods at ½ the effect), and Pacify. The original spell doesn't list how many staves you need. I went with 7, since that seems to be THE number in Glorantha. (one could make a mini-adventure about an Issaries trader missing one of his staves and the PCs go search for it, maybe finding that a competitor or his agent has stolen it. But then, what Issaries trader doesn't carry a spare?) Another example for Odayla, after reading the Glorantha wiki following links involving the Beast rune (being immune to non-iron was a bit much): Beast Form Bear Duration (minutes), Rank Acolyte (Similar to the Beast Form spell found in the core rules except for the changes written here.) The caster turns himself into a grizzly bear, retaining his INT, POW, and CHA, but exchanges his STR, CON, SIZ, and DEX values for that of an average grizzly (25, 13, 34, and 13, respectively), plus add 1 to each of those values per point of the spell’s intensity, adjusting skills appropriately. He gains the natural abilities of the bear, including the natural armor points of the bear’s hide (3). Also, only iron weapons do their full damage to the bear, all other physical attacks do half damage. One question I have about this shapechange, what are the skill percentages to use? The bear's, or the better value of either the bear or the caster? Thanks for listening, now back to my research and re-writes (I just know my gamers are eagerly awaiting new info I post on our FB group page.. hahahahaha)

How about 7.4, or maybe 4.7? Covers all bases.

I started a new campaign with long-time D&D players new to RQ. For adult initiation into an Orlanthi cult I had their characters enter a trance-like state to make choices in a vision quest. I related the answer choices to runes and hoped it might give their characters a sense as to what cult to join. I'm curious as to what runes you might associate with each answer. Scene 1: You are walking up a wooded hill when a small boulder rolls by. Do you: a) give chase and jump over it b ) watch it roll away c) follow it to see where it ends up d) run ahead of it and warn others e) go uphill to see where it came from f) ignore it and continue on your way g) run alongside and talk to it h) stop it in some manner (P.S. yeah, sort of borrowed this from a KoDP heroquest that uses a wheel instead of a boulder and have more choices.) Scene 2: You are hungry but recently caught a small fish. Before you eat it you hear a noise and spot a bear eating berries on a bush. All those berries will feed you more than the fish. Do you: a) leave the fish so its smell will attract the bear away from the berries b ) kill the bear and eat fish and berries so you will be completely fed c) trade the fish to the bear so you can eat the berries d) share the fish and berries with the bear e) leave the fish and berries for the bear and go search for other food f) eat the fish and leave the bear and berries alone (P.S. someone wanted an answer of kill the bear and eat it)

Here, I corrected it for you. And you might want to be on guard since you mentioned the words "short" and "ducks" in one sentence.

This is not going to be good for new players. They will be overwhelmed learning the system, and then be even more overwhelmed with an elaborate background system in a world they know nothing about (as already pointed out). We have a beginner's D&D5e ongoing-campaign game at my store on Sunday. I see new players being confused with starting a new character, despite the Quick Build paragraph written for each class, and then they are even more confused when told to level up their character to the average group level (level 7 currently). I foresee the same problems with this current concept for the new version of RQ. Top it off, they spend maybe half the game session making their character before they even get a chance to play. I thought about making some templates to speed up character creation for D&D5E, and have done so with MRQ2/RQ6 (mostly pre-assigning skill points based on a theme), but that does take away total control of character creation. I prefer the zero-to-hero style of play. IMO, that's where the game should start, and optionally have the elaborate background system so proposed since it's usually easier to add than to subtract. I do like elaborate background systems, being an avid Traveller player and referee.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll have to get a copy of Classic Fantasy then. It would probably help my group switch from their "beloved" D&D/Pathfinder system. (why do people love straitjackets so much? )

I was talking to a friend who might be willing to give RQ a try, and he expressed a desire to play some sort of summoner similar to that from the Final Fantasy games (which I never played). Taking a quick look at FF's summoning on a website, the spells looked more like regular Sorcery type damage or effect on the enemy than actually summoning a creature or spirit to fight for you. Also, in a previous campaign, using MRQ2 rules, someone else wanted to play a summoner and we had difficulty finding any rules in RQ for such. We even looked at Stormbringer rules which didn't help. Is there any equivalent summoning rules in RQ to simulate the Summon Monster spell of D&D 3.x or Pathfinder? I looked in RQ6 and the closest I could find are Predator Spirits.

I disagree and is not intuitive. I see a lot of math being involved during play (or a busy character sheet which has already been covered) which will slow things down considerably. Combat (or any fast action in general) needs to be quick, not having people spend a lot of time to make sure their math is correct. I suggested in another thread a way to have additional levels of success that is quick to see: doubles. For example, a 22 is rolled on an attack, it's quite obvious without the need to do math or consult some chart. 22 is not low enough for a critical (unless the attacker is very very good), but could be considered a special success if special successes are desired.

Ugh. I hated the switch from Battle Magic to Spirit Magic; I ignored the spirit attachment to those spells. I was so glad that MRQ2 and RQ6 dropped the spirit thing.

I heard about how great (gack) the new dice system* is in the new Star Wars RPG and how some dice determine, story-wise, how good or bad a success/failure was. One benefit to that system is not having to look up on some table(s) for various special affects. But I wondered if this was possible with the regular dice and came up with the idea that works for dice rolls that involve 2 or more dice, such as 1D100 (2 x 10-sided) for RQ or 2D6 (Traveller, my favorite sf RPG): doubles. RQ already has such for certain rolls: fumbles on 99 and 00. But what if a 77 is rolled? Might that be something just a tad more successful in some way (if made the skill check) or worse in some way (if failed the skill check)? But, what if you want a success but with some aspect of failure, for example breaking your lock pick even though you successfully picked the lock? One could say that even doubles (e.g., 44) make the check results better while odds doubles (e.g., 33) make the check results worse. Again, this mostly would be used to help add some story-telling if that's desired and might not add anything every time (my own group isn't that interested in story fluff of that detail, alas). I hope I was clear and look forward to comments. Now I'm off to play my favorite superhero RPG: Champions. Hmm, wonder if would work for 3D6 as well, although most GMs have let people get extra affect when 3 ones are rolled. - Glen * IMO: why have funky dice when "old" dice work just fine? but as a game store owner: yay! sell even more dice to players that might already have a pile of regular dice

I wouldn't want to see any of his cheese-cake art in any RQ book.

(sorry for the late posting as I just signed on) I missed out on getting the Guide the Glorantha. I'd like to see scenes of various activities that also includes the clothing styles of various peoples. A market square of a city along a trade route would show many different people. It's been a long time since I played RQ2, but isn't there some place that many of the nomads of Prax get together every so often? A scene as if standing on a distant hill, perhaps from behind the observers, would show the different tribal housing styles. What does The Block look like? (this might need to be a fish-eyed angle of view) Is it truly a perfect rectangle or more like a splinter with many jagged contours? (try to climb THAT, you modern day rock climbers!)

Yeah, of a Mistress Race Troll...