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I don't agree. I originally found the standard races a bit hohum, until we played the game. That's when it becomes fun to have the orcs as the working class and pyrates, the dwarfs as working class to artisans, and the elfs are aristocracy to middle class. Humans intermingle but in fact I'd almost say it'd be fun to lose the humans.

I would also not drop the magic, I'd run it with Magic World, it has the right level of bounce and maybe port in a less nasty version of Sanity if that's yer bag.

It's a fantasy pirate game, so one has to also consider Pirates and Dragons from Cakebread and Walton when it arrives.

It used to take me all of 10 minutes to whip up a RQ3 character. Roll characteristics, roll or pick age, pick career, pick magic, and done. What does MW do that makes it so much faster, and how long does it take?

MW is Elric!/SB5. I'd say character gen is the same as RQ3 when you know both well.

RQ6 is maybe a tad longer since it has a life path / events section (which is cool).

MW is bouncier in combat and the magic is more flash/bang.

I love all and couldn't frankly say that RQ3, RQ6, MW or OQ are objectively better than each other save that I think the Resistance Table is redundant. OR, that the skills are redundant and we should have a Resistance Table only based game.

I've had the same experience: bits and pieces of all the d100 games are now finding their way into my OQ2-based S&S rules for my Atlantis campaign. It started out as a Stormbringer 5 house-ruled set, but OQ2 allows me to actually assemble it into something I can freely (well, except for the printing costs) distribute to my group.

My 'Monster Worlde' ruleset is on my macbook now being slowly boiled from bits of Elric!, OQ2, RQ6 and Renaissance..

I was looking through Renaissance Deluxe last night, re-reading the combat chapter. And something stood out to me since the last time I'd read it - something I hadn't remembered. When an attacker achieves a critical hit, there is no advantage whether a defender successfully, or unsuccessfully reacts to it. Same result: Attacker does maximum damage and ignores defender's armour. If you don't Crit Parry/Dodge you're screwed. And, even if you do, you're still getting hit.

This struck me as odd. Is this an OpenQuest-ism? Seems a bit cruel.

I don't think it's OQ.

It us rather like Elric tho.

As a Games Master, I wouldn't allow Torturer to be either a Lore, Craft or Art. And even as a Craft, it would not be made available to player characters. Too many ethical issues, and there'd always be the one player who gets bored and stupid, and wants to try it out on random NPCs and the other player characters, like the player of a thief character who suddenly says "I backstab the team leader!" out of the blue when he thinks the focus of attention's shifted away from him for a moment.

You've not read enough Moorcock, or GRR Martin or Glen Cook, or...

How about something in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth during the height or twilight of the golden age? Political Intrigue in the Sejm/parliament, numerous wars and freebooting in Zaporizhia. Mind you, I was working on this myself for a while, but got sidetracked plus I found enough military history but very little social history i.e. what daily like was like in the Commonwealth.

Now I'd love to know more about this. Mark Galeotti is a good source for things Baltic and Russian..

Venice, La Serenissima Repubblica di Venezia

During Carneval..

Rob and Jonathan are both clearly big RQ/Glorantha fans. Rob's avatar in the book is full of what look to me like Gloranthan runes.

Let's push harder, FATE doesn't need stats anyway!

Pelgrane are asking which other rpg people would like to see their new 13 Age Bestiary stats for, and BRP is an option.

I'd love to see the stuff in there for BRP, so let's all vote and make it clear we'd love to have some more d100 beasties!

http://www.pelgranepress.com/?p=14127

Other than survival and communication skills the limits would be much lower, and even these benefit immensely. The smartest Babylonian priest may write a brilliant epic, but it's going to be limited and formulaic compared to Homer, much less Dante (or Robert Howard). These people are basically cavemen and 80 word vocabulary starving farmers with bricks and asphalt, and their greatest aren't as well off as poor people in Mexico in terms of access to accurate information, food and time to develop specialized skills.

This reads rather derogatory about our ancestors. Let's not assume that humans are as culturally developed as we are, everytime we go down this route we tend to ignore the complexities of non literary cultures.

Ditto, were Babylonians and Sumerians starving on a regular basis?

Good ideas, perfectly well explained. In fact RQ from day one acknowledged the differences between bronze and iron and steel, and this was reflected in Glorantha, but with the later metals being lighter and stronger, as well as poisonous to trolls etc. [Alhthough they did clearly state that Gloranthan metals were not quite the same as the Terran analogues.] Also look how quickly weapons get degraded in combat in earlier versions of RQ, and how quickly shields break. Any Bronze Age game should reflect these earlier weapon breakage rules.

As the rulesets have merged this distinction has blurred, especially since so many gamers ignore encumbrance, but it is quite a good idea if you want to draw and explain how different metallurgies dictate the battlefield.

I always liked Mongoose' Slaine game rule that a flint weapon *would* break and shatter into pieces, and the GM would dice for when, but never tell the player until it did!

Chasing reality in a fantasy roleplaying game might be a deeply self deluding task.

In Melnibone they'd view it as an Art, but in Pang Tang it's be a Craft. The difference is between a craftsman and an artist, in that the methods can be very very similar but the desired outcome differs.

Someone who studied it but didn't do it would have it as a Lore.

I'd allow anyone with either skill (Craft/Art/Lore) to use it as the other with a simple increase in difficulty of one step.

In RQ6 or other games that use augments then they might augment each other, and also a medical/healing skill might be a suitable augment.

Does Legend use augments? I've never read it, one of the few d100 games I have never read.

I'd like to see a totally new game focusing on the angst and emotions, a non BRP rethink. Not that I don't love d100 YK, it's my roots man, just that it's all been done very very well, and it doesn't need doing again.

I am happy with the idea that Wyrms might be non-kosher dragons. LOL.

Sounds sensible, and it really doesn't require conversion; I just ne ed characters using Witchcraft to have a MAG statistic calculated.

Exactly. There is nothing to stop you adding a new stat here and there in your game.

Don't convert. Just lift and drop the whole system into your BRP game. It's simpler and unlikely to break, and you get to use it rather than messing with it.

I am enjoying using RQ6 right now and I shall focus on that rule set for a year. But then I may switch to a BRP game, or an OQ game. The nice thing about d100 is that they're all close enough that you can switch easily, but I also find, and this is important, that they're a bit too close to run in parallel without getting confused.

Witch Sight is definitely appropriate for the recognising magical aura.

I tend to view enchanted items as quite "chatty" and likely to introduce themselves.

It's rare to see a cheap copy. It was a very good game for it's time and was crushed by TSR. Shame since although a bit SPI fiddly, it would have made a lot of people very very happy.

I played it at Uni and I really grokked it.

A Conan setting needs to have a cost for magic, a weakening, a corruption, a slow decay into madness or evil.

It also needs to allow a character to focus wholly on physical improvement and for those that focus on civilised pursuits to soften a little and be weaker.

But all of that can be done with RQ6 as written, so no problems there. Just need a cost for the magic.. and sanity from CoC is as good as any other system for that.

Interesting that you say that Simon. I used to think you were wrong but my recent adventures with RQ6 suggest hit locations may be back on my agenda.

Could someone post a list of the monsters in this book?

I'd say stats are redundant in many roleplaying games and in RQ.

If I was starting again I'd adopt the Talislanta approach and actually just generate a modifier, +/-5: +/-10: +/-15: +/-20: +/-25

Or, just abolish them and have skills only.

Or, have no skills and use stats only with the resistance table from BRP and a narrative 'label' to trigger situational bonuses (like 13th Age does)

But we ain't going to go there.

Oh Queenie, one might also think you've read the book of perfect d100 trolls..

Is 4e Stormbringer or Elric! or MRQII/Elric the best demon summoning? Ha, that one still burns low and constant amongst my friends. Frankly I like the Elric!/Stormbringer5 rules, which think are nicely balanced, but loads of people love the points build system in 4e. Thing is, Moorcock kept writing YK books as the different editions were written, so in some ways 1e Stormbringer does reflect the books, as written to that point, and MRQII/Elric does reflect the books, as seen by Loz at that point!

Now, comparing characters from fiction against each other statted up in different game systems.. ha, that's as old as Alarums and Excursions (don't know, ask your grandpappy)..

The comparison is somewhat pointless but I'll say a few things: Elric is a souped up non human powered by a demon sword that transfers the souls and essence of the dead into him.. yup, he's going to be superhuman.

Conan is a man. Howard makes it quite clear he's an awesome specimen of a man, but he is also bested by others, and his skills and talents don't only lie in pure strength. So, I'd say that you could easily argue over STR 15, and I'd personally probably go with 17 for Conan.

But really, it doesn't matter.