Darius West

On 7/11/2022 at 4:08 PM, svensson said:

I'm not disagreeing with @Darius West's choices, but Woods of the Dead and Snakepipe should definitely be in the running. Both of those places are murder holes. But I suppose all these places are.

Look, I agree with you.  Those are seriously BAD places.  I just think they are less bad than the ones I mentioned.  Honestly I have "shot the pipe" without character deaths,  and I have never needed to go into the Stone Woods, and while I have GMed Redstone Cavern I have never played it.

But lets be objective here...   The Hydra is 1 to 6 times worse than the Crimson Bat, and if you wander into its valley it WILL eat you, (thousands of Thunder Delta Slingers can't be wrong, but will prove delicious).  Upland Marsh is undead horror with the very real risk of death by drowning.  I have watched many deaths and a couple of TPKs in Upland Marsh (blub-blub-blub+ desperate flailing in the mud). And then you have The Earthshakers...  That one looks like a promising human sacrifice...  Any objections?  What?  No-one dares object?  Funny that... KYAGB. 

14 hours ago, sladethesniper said:

Ars Magica (via MtA) is where my idea came from, actually. The spontaneous magic stuff is great, the 53 pages of "spells" is what I am trying to get away from.

What I really, really want is the Magic system from Mage: the Ascension.... without a flowchart and 9 spheres (10 with qlippothic) to play with. So, a simplified MtA magic system.

-STS

Well, that said, it is pretty possible to just rework Ars Magica or M:tA into a BRP format.  The crucial thing is to set levels for effects.  That being said, BRP doesn't give you that leveled effect of the dice pool systems like M:tA, and is somewhat different to the way Ars handles skills too.

8 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

Wouldn't he have had to have sex for that to happen? 😉

Yes, sex with females does tend to cut into one's opportunities for "secret late night drilling" with fine strapping hoplites.

If you are looking for a way to do this, I recommend Ars Magica as a model.  It has good rules for what it calls Spontaneous Magic, which involves improvised spells.  

The basic principle is that there are 5 techniques of magic, and 10 forms.  The techniques allow you to manipulate other forms of magic, while the Forms are things like herbam which covers plant life, or corpus which covers all things relating to the human body, plus the 4 elements, etc.  You gain levels in these forms and techniques based on things you can study, and if your Technique+Form+(other bonuses)+1d10 puts you over double the level of effect you want to achieve, you can do any magic within that area that you choose.  Ars Magica is great in that it allows player wizards to do any spell they like, provided they have an appropriate level of general skill in related abilities that such magic could be based on.  The Ars Magica system has a lot of other good ideas to draw upon too, and is a brilliant game and system imo.

7 hours ago, Orlanthatemyhamster said:

Not Snack[sic] Pipe?...

Nah, it doesn't quite make my top 3, it might be 4th.  I mean, Hydra Valley is a death sentence, I have witnessed 7 characters drown in the Upland Marsh, and the Earthshaker temple is quite willing to murder tourists and there is nothing the tourists can really do about it except try to run away, which likely won't work any better than trying to fight.  Next to that, Snakepipe Hollow is nasty, but just not bad enough.

On 7/9/2022 at 2:43 PM, Shiningbrow said:

However, there are no skill rolls made.

Instead, it's endurance.

I am all for GMs who would rather play through an initiation and give players the decisions and all that extra Lozenge flavor.

Pretty sure it was grain goddesses that seemed to have the same grain.  I mean, the Yelmies might notice that Dendara shouldn't have carnal relations with her own son Yelmalio...  Ernalda on the other hand...

5 hours ago, metcalph said:

The Crystal rules in Elder Secrets did have some crystals being useful for sorcery.

Did they?  I thought I read that pretty closely.  Then again it was about 2 years ago...

3 hours ago, imakeeper said:

Inspired by the Tell-tale heart?

No, not really, more inspired by the Color out of Space, but this is comedy so I opted for a low brow pun for a title, because of the Poe Story, and because farts can be telling.  The full story mocks H.P. Lovecraft by being similarly politically incorrect in a way that undermines itself.  HP was kinda on-the-nose.  See what I did there?  (Oh FFS, please believe me that the rest of the story isn't as cringingly awful as this comment, it is filled with 1920s period humor and is entirely lore friendly to CoC, it's really funny too I swear!)  

On 7/4/2022 at 5:46 AM, Topi.242 said:

While going through stuff about Jonstown and other nearby locations I began to think how much our Gloranthas actually vary?

Fazzur's Duck Hunt was 100% effective.  There was a terrible massacre at Lookout Island with the help of Delecti who voluntarily became a Lunar client as a result.  Those ducks who sought refuge among the Beast Folk were hunted and lured out by contrived methods that came close to starting an all-out-war with the Beast Folk and the Lunars, but Ironhood demurred. Subsequently the price for ducks was raised, and the last of the ducks was exterminated in the Big Rubble in 1616.  Duck feather eiderdowns became a rare and sought-after commodity in Glamour thereafter.  Some Sartarites lamented the passing of the ducks and railed against this Lunar genocide, but others of a more mercenary bent actively participated in the pogrom and became rich on Lunar silver in a time when Sartarites were poor.  Some say the extermination of the Ducks began the inexorable path to the Hero Wars in earnest, and the gods themselves were revolted by the atrocity.

On 7/8/2022 at 8:29 AM, metcalph said:

I think they would worship Yanafal Tarnils rather than Humakt as he's the better Fighting God. 

Idk man, reusable Sever Spirit is Humakt only.  Yanafal's big trick is that he is a lot like Humakt but can get resurrected.  But then, how often do you plan on getting killed?

16 hours ago, French Desperate WindChild said:

crystals

Crystals are a fresh "can of wyrms".  Presently they are written up solely with spirit magic and divine magic in mind.  There are no rules that explain how Sorcery and crystals interact.  Yes, the GM can choose to interpret the existing rules in light of Sorcery and other rules conventions but nothing specific has been committed to paper in the rules as yet.

I would also like to see Alchemy have more involvement in Sorcery, but that is another matter. 

5 hours ago, klecser said:

It is also worth noting that Call of Cthulhu has a long tradition of adding skills to NPCs/Monsters that are not in the rulebook and are intended to serve whatever the needed purpose is in a scenario. Examples include "Be Adorable" for kids or "Whimper" for a pathetic creature. Have fun with these. All of my investigators have one or more deliberately comedic skills based upon an aspect of their character. Examples: "Fear the Wind," "Fall Off Mountain," "Yeet Child," and "Restrain Ally." They have very niche application and I usually start them at 70%.

These are some of the best features of CoC imo. I normally give every player 1 as a freebie and then 1 "vaguely useful" trait in exchange for 1 "mildly annoying" trait.

Back in 2015 I wrote a comedic Lovecraftian horror story called "The Telltale Fart" that deals heavily with the issue of scent.  Here are the first 2 pages...

It began in the Summer of 1905, the year the Miskatonic River burst its banks and Arkham was subjected to an epidemic of Cholera as the flood waters settled and stagnated in the streets.  At least that is the story carried in the local rags, because the truth of the matter so unsettling that it is far easier to offer up the palliative of an epidemic than to reveal the truth.  My name is Hezekiah Beaufort and I am perhaps the sole survivor of events who is able to accurately recall what transpired in those fateful and horrible days of memories better left forgotten, but some record must be kept, so those who come after can understand what occurred and make peace with it.  In those halcyon days before these events I was a sommelier by trade for the Boston Grand Hotel in Avery Street.  I was also the chairman of the Arkham Wine Club, closely associated with the prestigious Arkham Club which hosts the great and the good of Arkham’s oldest families, though my own lineage is more humble by far. Suffice to say that there was great overlap between the two, save the more sanctimonious Presbyterians and Methodists who indulge in the insufferable moral vice of teetotaling; a sin against Christ’s very own teaching by miracle.  I have always been of a sensitive disposition but my olfactory senses are notably acute and further trained and honed in the noble service of the appreciation of the vintner’s art. Suffice to say I am also a man of some culinary expertise, however amateur, but my hound-like nose is the envy of many in my profession and I am often called upon to judge matters of taste when pronounced acuity is required.  In short, my nose and my pallet are my instruments, and they are my life, and that is how I came to the situation.

            For my part I was never one to indulge in the whispered gossip of the superstitious Arkham locals. I smiled condescendingly at their tales of ghosts and witches and ghost-witches, and ghouls and missing children, and abandoned houses that harbored unspeakable things, and graveyards that were playgrounds for terrors on the full moon.  How could a modern man take such absurdity seriously ?  One must not mock one’s hosts on occasions when such matters are discussed, and indeed I often feigned distress at such tales as a means of absconding from such fruitless discussions when the night’s conversation turned in such direction.  Would that I had listened more closely, for I may have been better armed against the events nay horrors that were to unfold.

            The flood waters first rose on June 23^rd of 1905, and left many of the properties along the riverbanks inundated, and indeed the ground water also rose, creating large pond-like stretches of water, as the storm waters banked up and overflowed into the streets.  Many was the house that had its basement flooded, or worse.  In all the commotion however nobody noticed the untimely and obscene demise of Thomas Atlee in his rooms.

            The week prior to the beginning of this unseemly turn of events had been deeply traumatic for me.  I was in my thirties now, and all but a confirmed bachelor but a year before until I met the beautiful ginger haired Jessica Anne Saltonstall of Arkham, and had only moved to the apartment in Arkham so that I might be closer to her after she consented to be my wife. Imagine my dismay when I saw her parading through the streets of Arkham like a brazen strumpet with her ankle-meats on display for every leering pervert who chose to cast a slavering gaze at them.  When I remonstrated with her, my fiancé’s hidden degeneracy became more clear, for she honestly believed I was joking and she mocked my righteous outrage, until I tore my grandmother’s engagement ring from her finger and stormed out, livid and incensed.  Soon thereafter, imagine my further disdain and anger at discovering that the perverted little wench had the unmitigated gall to charge me with “Breach of Promise”!  I despaired for all that was good in the world, and the injustice that allowed such a worthless creature to think that she could bring such a charge when it was the immorality of her own behavior which had caused the breach, and now she sought to undo me through the courts through her family’s local influence in Arkham, the very connections that had first provided me with entry to the Arkham Club.  There is no justice in the world, and in truth I felt some mild sympathy even with the dreaded nihilism of Communism that the decadent and disgraceful rich may so abuse their position as to attack a self-made man like myself for not compromising his propriety.

             For my part, living on the second story and down the hall from Thomas Atlee I never had reason to suppose much amiss on that fateful day when it all began.  Indeed I was preoccupied with emotional matters more than with the foul smells that rose with the flood as the sewers were breached.  Indeed I was informed in advance while at work in Boston, and prevailed upon my good friends the Brewsters to grant me lodging until the worst was over, and continued my work much the same as before, though I did invest in a fresh suit to tide me over for attire in the period.  Some four days later after the waters had subsided I reluctantly made my way back to my apartment in Arkham. I had chosen my lodgings as they were close to the train station, as was the Grand Hotel, and my first understanding of what I would face hit me as I left the train in the early Summer evening.  The streets were redolent with the stink of the floodwaters and its detritus. I cannot say, but whether it was the work of fortune or fate, whomever, she is a cruel mistress.  I fortified myself with a dab of Vicks Vapo-rub under my nose as I left the train carriage.

            The streets were largely deserted and the dank aroma of foul water suffused with rotting carcasses and sewerage hung in the misty air despite my olfactory precautions, such that I covered my handkerchief with more Vicks Vapo-rub and increased my pace.  When I reached the door of the block, I was sufficiently pained that I forsook my usual politeness to my landlady and fairly bolted up the steps to my rooms, stopping only to catch a clean breath when I finally slammed the door behind me.  For fear of the stench outside I found a roll of masking tape and sealed up my windows as best I could and placed a damp towel across the crack under the door.  Soon thereafter I took it upon myself to burn some incense, simple sandalwood, to ward off what foul air had followed me off the street. I despaired at my choice.  How could I arrive tomorrow in Boston with even the hint of this on my clothing ?  Unacceptable !  I stripped, and put my garments into a sack, and that sack into a duffel bag, and barely stopped short of throwing the duffel bag into the fireplace and lighting it.  Wearied, I ate sparingly, and discovered that the milk was off, and the taps were running brown, so I drank a glass of a pleasant little shiraz with some lovely complex notes, and went to bed, though it was small comfort and sleep came but fitfully...

5 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

Ummm... what? It's only +2 for the highest rated Rune.

Whoops.  Shows how long it has been since I read that part. 🙂

5 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

But, getting to 32 INT (or higher) is easy!!! (expensive, but easy). You can increase Intensity via Inscribing with extra POW... That's possibly how some of those you mention did it. Also, crystals. And enchantments (as evidenced by one NPC in a scenario). That last might be the "sneaky rort magics", but the others are already RAW.

As for Enhance INT, I'd be ok with throwing in a Man Rune to lower that Intensity:INT ratio (actually, Intensity: whatever stat your boosting).

Page 390.  I don't think I read that nearly carefully enough.  That's a pretty big bonus.  Admittedly you pay thru the nose for it, but you get 1 point of Free Intensity, Duration and Range without needing any spell manipulation. 

I note that it doesn't specify whether you can keep putting points into the same inscription after its creation. I would assume so given that it says you can add points, but is that while you are opening the inscription or subsequently too?

Without question, Sorcery in RQ has a steeper learning curve than other magic systems.  

The largest advantage that sorcery brings is Duration, with which it can easily outlast Shamans and Priests regardless of how much Extension they bring.

Of course Duration also brings its own problems and you almost need a spreadsheet to keep track of when your spells will lapse.

Enhance INT is an interesting spell too.  Hypothetically if you start with a 21 INT (18+3 for Fire Rune), and Enhance INT in a matrix, you can start with 12 points of the spell (+4 INT) and 9 points of duration which will net you an INT of 25 for 1 day.  You can then cast the spell using 24 points of free INT for +7INT and a duration of 10 minutes, netting you 28 INT which you can then use to cast again netting you 29 INT for 5 minutes ( if you haven't run out of MP yet).  At this point the spell taps out from what I can tell, as it requires multiples of 4 and you can no longer boost it high enough to get from 29 to 32.

Obviously there is a method, as Zzabur can cast huge spells, but for players, according to the present rules, places and components don't boost Free INT, but only your basic casting skill.  No doubt the Malkioni have some sneaky rort magics up their wizard sleeves that allow them to boost their Free INT even higher, perhaps via rituals that allow the primary caster to borrow all or a portion of the Free INT of other sorcerers participating in the ritual.  Who knows?

Sun Wheel Dancers were free and independent until Lokarnos objectified them.  

I feel the need rising to joke about the Right to Arm Bears.

In an ideal world we would have a program that would employ real world physics to the problem.  The force would come directly from the Size & Strength of the person wielding.  The area connecting with the enemy would dictate the level of damage as a fractional multiplier based on surface area.  The weight of the item would also be involved in the calculation of the damage etc.

In the case of giants we have no hard and fast rules.  What we can say for certain is that the damage bonus for giants is (frankly) catastrophic for player characters.  Unless you have Shield of Arran or a good dodge, your character will likely die because you cannot meaningfully parry a giant.

As a rule of thumb, your average human is Size 13, so if you divide the Giant's size by 13 (round down) you could then raise the damage based on how big the Giant is, but there is some sort of square rule for height to SIZ.  SIZ is a bit of a nebulous and problematic stat that is generally geared around human dimensions but develops problems (which are otherwise not obvious) when applied to other creatures.  So if a Giant is SIZ 39, double the weapon damage, if the giant is 78 double it again (I think...(I'm trying to remember the rule a friend proposed here)).

Feasibly if a weapon employs 2 dice (like greatsword 2d8), you can add an extra dice for every 13 SIZ (so siz 26 giant does 3d8 with his oversized greatsword).

For the most part, Giants will never be able to afford metal gear; it is simply too expensive for them, especially as they keep growing.  They will be limited to wooden items no larger than the largest tree on their continent, and are unlikely to develop much more than clubs.  Of course Hero Quests are also a thing...

My votes for Glorantha would be Dorastor (you're gonna need cure chaos wound and psych therapy), The Underworld (you start by being dead), and that place in Pamaltela with all the giant monsters (om nom nom).

My votes for Dragon Pass would be Hydra Valley (om nom nom), Upland Marsh (you're gonna drown), and the Earthshaker Temple (tourists double as sacrifices).

On 7/7/2022 at 5:55 AM, metcalph said:

It's also repeated in the Glorantha Sourebook p70 which originally appears in Wyrms Footnotes.

This is the version I subscribe to, I only raised that other Ernalda/Dendara link because I bumped into it and wondered if something had been retconned.

On 7/7/2022 at 5:55 AM, metcalph said:

Given Teshana's maritial discord described in the book and curious features in the Teshnan frieze in the guide, it's my belief that Teshnos was at the other end of the Goddess Switch suffering the failed marriages.  

That seems like a good answer.  If it isn't canon, it should be imo.

23 hours ago, metcalph said:

It's not so much as the question of whether they can make familiars (Probably) and how to do so (Probably similar to Weapons and Equipment) but the idea that every sorcerer *must* have a familiar to demonstrate mastery of their craft.

So... You have to have a familiar as a sorcery "flex".  Far be it from me to say that this is wrong, I love the idea, but I also think it is humorous.  I mean... "Yeah, I sank a ship with my illusory force spell, but I'm no sorcery master unless and until I can imbue my pet with superpowers."  It just seems amusingly arbitrary, like telling someone they can't graduate because they have the wrong color stripe on their gown.  This is not a criticism btw, I love arbitrary traditions and conventions that iterate the world in odd ways.

19 hours ago, JRE said:

But we do not use RQ3 anymore, and you have only one familiar, so there is no need to make familiar creation expensive in terms of stats.

Has any product reintroduced sorcery familiars?  I haven't bought the Red Book of magic yet so idk.  AFAIK presently we have no rules for familiars in RQG as a result.

1 hour ago, Shiningbrow said:

What's the point/intention here?

We can already store spells in objects, as well as MPs (non-regenerating), and a spirit (both spirit magic spells, and regenerating spells).

So this idea confuses me, as it seems quite impractical.

May I direct you to Strangers in Prax (RQ3) in which on pages 66-67 there is a fairly detailed write-up on the sorcerer Arlaten's familiar nail-head.  This was a pretty good model of what was possible regarding familiars using RQ3 sorcery.  The idea was that any "incomplete" creature could become a familiar, and that meant inanimate objects, the undead, animals, elementals etc.  They became a storage for spells so the sorcerer could keep their INT free among other things.  There was a lot of scope to have a dangerous magical pet to do one's bidding.