lawrence.whitaker

At http://www.thedesignmechanism.com/news.php you will find a 9-page sneak preview of 'Shores of Korantia', the latest RuneQuest release that will be available in early May. Written by Jonathan Drake, 'Shores of Korantia' describes the Korantine city states of Thennla, the world first introduced in 'Age of Treason: The Iron Simulacrum'. The book details Korantine life, the cities, political and religious structures, cults, magic, and much more - including rules for sea-faring and naval combat. The book rounds-out out with three scenarios: 'Varoteg's Rascals', 'The House of Valsus' and 'Prishad's Daughter', which can be run together as a campaign. More news on pre-orders will be released when the book goes to print.

Difficult, without major spoilers. Its a combination of sandbox and campaign, with individual scenarios resembling missions to help (or possibly hinder) Constantinople's struggle against the growing Ottoman hordes. In the parts we played, the characters were engaged as emissaries by the Emperor to attend the Ottoman court, and then travel through the Adriatic and Mediterranean in a bid to persuade the various Italianate City States (Milan, Venice, Rome and Genoa) to provide more aid as the siege began to intensify. We had to learn how to use Greek Fire, equip a ship, and then run the Ottoman naval blockade. So it's a vast sweep with a lot to do - and lots of it grounded in history.

It's been a while since we gave you a news update, so I thought we'd celebrate spring's arrival (not that you'd know it in deepest Ontario) with some news on recent developments. Let's start with the RuneQuest Gateway news. The RQ Gateway is a third party license allowing publishers to create their own supplements for RuneQuest. Chronicles of Future Earth (Mindjammer Press) This news broke yesterday, but we're more than happy to repeat it. Mindjammer Press, the company behind 'Mindjammer', 'Monsters and Magic' and 'Chronicles of Future Earth' will be publishing the second edition of the Chronicles book using RQ6 as the game engine. We're thrilled that Sarah Newton chose us because we've been friends for quite a while and its always great to work with people like Sarah and companies like Mindjammer. We're really looking forward to what Sarah does with Chronicles and it's terrific to have her as a partner. http://mindjammerpress.com Stupor Mundi (Alephtar Games) Another good friend, Paolo Guccione, will be releasing the excellent Stupor Mundi sourcebook for RQ6 under the Gateway license. Stupor Mundi was originally an MRQ1 release, but Paolo has taken the opportunity to fully update the book using RQ and, having seen the first-draft files, it's looking very good indeed. If you're interested in historical roleplaying in 13th Century Europe, then this will be the setting for you. http://www.alephtargames.com Solace Games Anthony Uyl's Solace Games is another new RQ Gateway partner that we're delighted to welcome aboard. Solace has produced a number of diverse supplements for Pathfinder, Legend, Call of Cthulhu and, now, RQ6. The first release is a detailed cult write-up, The Cult of the Black Veil, and we're looking forward to seeing this - and more - of his work. https://www.facebook.com/SolaceGames So that's the RuneQuest Gateway partnership news. Now for Design Mechanism's plans... RuneQuest: Classic Fantasy Rod Leary's excellent guide to traditional dungeon crawling, evoking the halcyon days of fantasy roleplaying's origins, comes to RuneQuest. Rod is adapting his Classic Fantasy rules (first published as an acclaimed BRP monograph) exclusively for RuneQuest 6th edition. This isn't a supplement - it's a complete game specifically tailored to recreating that original dungeoneering experience. Rod's hard at work on the manuscript, and we are anticipating a late 2014/early 2015 release. RQ:Classic Fantasy will be completely compatible with all our existing supplements and adventures, but communicates a unique feel and gaming style that is geared wholeheartedly towards dungeon crawls and subterranean campaigns, recreating many of the themes found in the very first fantasy roleplaying games. Shores of Korantia This is currently in final proofing and should be going to press in the next few weeks. Once it's on the way to the printer, we will be opening pre-orders. Shores of Korantia is 230 pages and will be priced at $30. We will be publishing some page previews in the course of the next week. RuneQuest: Adventures in Glorantha Work continues on AiG and we know that many of you are impatient for its release as The Guide to Glorantha draws ever closer. Well, there's still a lot of work to do, and we cannot give any indication of publication date as yet. However, it is Pete's main priority and he's working very hard on making this a definitive Glorantha gaming reference. We will keep everyone posted on progress when there's more to report. Mythic Britain The manuscript will shortly be going for editing and the intention is to have Mythic Britain available for Gencon - but this isn't a guarantee. It will certainly be out by the autumn and we'll publish some previews as soon as we can. Mythic Constantinople At the recent Petecon in Sweden, Michael 'MOB' O'Brien ran a whole evening's worth of Byzantine goodness. The campaign takes you into an Ottoman-besieged Constantinople, across to the Ottoman heartlands, over the seas to medieval Italy and Greece, through huge naval battles, intimate court intrigues and more. This will be a terrific campaign - with large parts based on real events of 1453 and that period. Very excited about this book. Sun County Because MOB is multi-talented, he's working on both Constantinople and Sun County simultaneously. We're hoping to be able to release Sun County very close to AiG, but there's a way to go yet. Luther Arkwright We have much of the groundwork on Arkwright done and this will be my next project once I've finished everything I need to do on Mythic Britain. John White is contributing an excellent, detailed, parallel that examines an alternate Europe and America following a Confederate victory in the American Civil War with plenty of adventuring scope to find out what hand the Disruptors had in the grand scheme of things. Rules-wise, characters will play WOTAN agents, each with a unique ability or power, and a unique neurosis or dependency, that marks them out from the rank and file. Still lots to do on this book, but we're aiming for an Autumn/Winter 2014 release. 'Red Rocks' Following-on from Hessaret's Treasure, Matt Eager is working on a longer, more intricate scenario pack that will, once again, be set in The Realm. Its working title is 'Red Rocks' but expect this to change as the scenario develops. Free Supplements We have several free supplements planned for release: one, which Pete is working on, is super-secret for now. The others will cover ships and sea-faring, and rules for shield walls and larger scale conflicts. These will appear when they're ready, and as our schedule allows. As ever, thank you for your continued support and questions. It will be a great year for RuneQuest!

Probably not. Once we have a significant number of new products we may run another BoH but that won't be for quite a while.

No. Because, if you read the description provided in the RQ6 rules, you'll see, in the fourth para on page 346 the following statement (emphasis mine): The dragon characteristics provided here are for a young beast... Older specimens should have their skills, physical characteristics and natural protection augmented to reflect increasing age and experience. Take into account this, the whole range of traits they've been given, and the careful weighing of their attack types, and you should find that dragons are actually anything but nerfed...

Hardcovers are expensive and the sales of supplements really don't warrant the outlay. So, no, Monster Island won't get a hardcover, even through POD. I've been less than impressed with DTRPG's hardcopy service. I did a test of RQ6 in both soft and hardcover and Lightning Source messed-up the cover and interior graphics. The hardback test I had done has disintegrated after about a year of standard use. I know that some people are very happy with hardcovers done through DTRPG, but as each hardcover has to be paid for before its delivered, proofing and error correction becomes costly to do.

In the US, RQ6 is distributed by Alliance, which is the biggest US distributor and serves the whole of the USA. If Guardian deal with Alliance, they should put-in an order: Alliance has just taken delivery of a substantial consignment of the new hardcover. In the UK we have no formal distribution, despite best efforts to make contact with Esdevium (or at least, answer our emails).

Yes it is, and yes it does. An A2, full colour map, no less. There would be a little conversion work to do on the stats, and magic may be a little more challenging, but essentially you won't have too many (if any) problems. For non BRP games, it depends really on the game system. The text is very evocative and you can get a very good feel for a monster's strength from its game write-up to help you convert it to some other system. Its designed precisely to be used in this kind of way, and its very much a Lost World, pulp adventure setting. You know this when one of the NPCs is called Dug Maklure...

Try also on our forums. We have a section for Players and GMs and there a few virtual games preparing. http://designmechanism.freeforums.org

And the Bundle of Holding is now live! http://bundleofholding.com Buying early is the cheapest way to get the bonus supplements. The average price, though weighted to stay low for a while, will inevitably, rise during the bundle's run, and you have to pay higher than the current average to get the bonus titles. Remember that we're also supporting two excellent charities: MacMillan Cancer Support: http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Aboutus/AboutUsHome.aspx Electronic Frontier Foundation: https://www.eff.org/about So by supporting us and the Bundle of Holding, you are supporting two very, very worthwhile causes. Thank you in advance.

RuneQuest 6 Bundle of Holding Friends, In about one hour's time, at 2pm EST, we will be launching our RuneQuest Bundle of Holding over at http://bundleofholding.com/index/preview. This is a great chance for people to buy our PDFs at a remarkable price, for a limited period of time. 10% of all sales go to charity. Design Mechanism is supporting two: Macmillan Cancer Support and Electronic Frontiers. If you've been thinking about buying RuneQuest 6, this is superb way of buying into the system. Please help spread the word. Its a wonderful opportunity for people to sample RuneQuest and its latest supplements at a terrific price and to help support two excellent, deserving causes. Many thanks, Loz and Pete

As Chorpa says, its both. The scenarios are linked but can easily be run separately and in any order. We also have 'Hessaret's Treasure' which is set in the same world as 'Book of Quests' and acts as a great intro to that campaign/set of scenarios.

Correct. The value of the roll determining the contribution to the 100% goal. Yes - most inanimate objects have HP and AP, with HP being determined by size and density of the item, and AP by its material nature. However, depending on the situation and how you like to play the game, these values can be easily ignored in favour of a simpler system that places the emphasis on the story and unfolding drama.

Oxford English Dictionary definition: noun Skill, especially in the practical arts. Torture can therefore be a Craft.

It depends purely how you want to handle it. If you prefer, the Task rules are a good way of handling it, using the Brawn roll as the key skill, and simply taking each roll's result as a period of time needed to break open the door.

It actually has fewer than Monster Coliseum (which is even cheaper at just $1 from Design Mechanism's store on DTRPG) - the book on which Monsters of Legend is based. But, what I was referring to with RQ6 was the bunch of rules we provide that show you how to calculate the size, reach and damage values, plus some really good guidance on how creatures fight, that you won't find in either Monster Coliseum or Monsters of Legend.

RQ6 has a whole section concerning the size, reach and damage of monsters' natural weapons, plus, the combat system takes into account the relative size difference between weapons and how much damage is absorbed.

RQ6 supports all of these by using Combat Styles rather than individual weapon skills or narrow weapon groupings. Combat Styles can be as broad (Energy Weapons) or as narrow (Broadsword and Shield) as you like, and reflective of the culture, profession, milieu, and so on. Most Combat Styles cover 3-4 different weapons that are likely to be trained and practiced together. Therefore, the Combat Style approach is very similar to how we have the separate physical disciplines of Climb, Jump and Run under Athletics, and helps de-emphasise the importance of combat skills when compared with other kinds of skill (a legacy from RQ's earliest origins).

Herald of Doom was an Elric! fanzine produced and edited by Malcolm Wolter, with contributions by me, Richard Watts, Mark Morrison, Carl Pates, Lynn Willis and a few others. It lasted for about 5 issues I think, and was published quarterly. I'm surprised you haven't heard of it, although it is (these days) somewhat on the obscure side. It was published around 1998/99 - although my memory could be a bit faulty on that and it may have been earlier.

No, it was because Drivethru run several sales campaigns a year and we have certain automated opt-in settings that ensure we're part of that. The Black Friday sale is the biggest sale Drivethru has and not being part of it would be to miss a huge opportunity.

None at all. Its self contained - although the Age of Treason book still contains lots of great material. Yes there is. There's guidance given on where to site Monster Island in the world of Thennla, and one of the scenarios would easily dovetail with using Monster Island full-on.

Do you know a.) a good online retailer who you know will be carrying it and b.) what sort of price point we are talking about? You can buy a copy direct from us at www.thedesignmechanism.com/products. We'll ship it to wherever you need it to go. Price point will be in the $60 region, with US shipping around $10.

I hated both. The best (IMHO) is the Brunner picture that graces the 1st ed Stormbringer boxed set (and 1st ed Elric!). It perfectly captures the sadness, brutal, slavish nature of man and sword. The reason it succeeds it because both Stormbringer and Elric are given equal definition and poise. No other illustration I've seen captures that symbiotic relationship.

http://designmechanism.freeforums.org/shores-of-korantia-cover-sneak-peak-t397.html

RQ6 is currently being reprinted in a standard hardback edition. The paperback has been discontinued (I do have a very small number of personal copies reserved for cons and tradeshows - PM me if you're interested), but the new hardback should be in stock and available in about 3 weeks.