lawrence.whitaker

Take an example. Static Armor values versus Variable. Runequest 2's were static. Stormbringer's were variable. Runequest 2 had Hit Locations, Stormbringer didn't.

This is actually a really good example of the informed decision-making I'm referring to. Stormbinger's variable armour was introduced because it was decided that locational hit points wouldn't be used. The reason for that was to speed-up game play to reflect the fast, furious and pulpish combat of the Elric books. Its also why the Major Wound Table came into existence. All three - variable armour, single HP pool, and MW table - are deliberate game design decisions to emulate the feel of combat in the Elric saga, while still utilising the core RQ system.

These weren't house rules: they were carefully engineered mechanics aimed at a particular play style. Just about every BRP/d100 game iteration has followed a similar pattern. I think its easier to tell the house rules, because they tend to lack careful application and fall apart in play (RQ3 Fatigue Points, for eg, or RQ3's sorcery rules).

the majority are just the preferred 'house rule' of a particular author.

I disagree: its also a little disingenuous. Any decent game designer - and the BRP/d100/RQ line has had some very good ones - don't introduce new rules either for...

to differentiate themselves from the other games. Which is even worse.

Or just because they're favoured house rules. I think that most rule changes are made from an informed standpoint, with good reason, and with considerable forethought. That doesn't mean a particular rule is always right, works well, or is suited to all play styles: but I think its disingenuous to suggest that the different iterations of BRP are a case of 'because the authors could'. That isn't true at all (with the exception, perhaps, of RQ3 which, by Greg Stafford's own admission, threw every house rule they were using into the mix). The vast majority of the time, rules variations are introduced to suit the play style or advance the mechanics of the game. Its certainly true of RQ6, and I know its also true of Stormbringer, Elric, Magic World, OpenQuest, Cthulhu, Ringworld, ElfQuest and so on.

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/82514/Empires

Ninjaed by Soltakss

Hessaret's Treasure - a brand new scenario for RQ6!

There’s something rotten in the town of Advent

Hessaret's Treasure - a brand new RQ6 scenario, now available for PDF download

http://www.thedesignmechanism.com/products.php#!/~/product/category=5186110&id=32088844

Advent - the last civilised place in The Realm before one crosses into the barbarian lands of The Long Riding. Many years ago this was a lawless place of warring clans and murderous bandits. Advent has grown since then, but little has changed. It still attracts the dregs, the runaways, the refugees, the desperate, the unforgiven.

Perhaps this is why Zarand and his gang of robbers thought Advent was a good place to lie-low. To plan the next job. To find the fabled treasure hoard of the barbarian chief, Hessaret.

But naturally, nothing is ever so simple.

This might just be Zarand’s last job...

Hessaret’s Treasure is a RuneQuest 6th Edition scenario set in The Realm, the lands described in Book of Quests. It provides a side chapter for that campaign or, as is intended, a scenario in its own right. While useful, Book of Quests is not essential to play, and this scenario can be easily slotted into many fantasy campaign settings.

48 pages, interactive PDF.

You might have better luck posting on the Design Mechanism forum as I think there's a thread there already about actual ply podcasts.

There aren't any podcasts I'm aware of, but there are some actual play reports.

I would like to preface my post here with the caveat that I'm onto a second bottle of merlot.

Now that's out of the way, as of today I now own each product available from The Design Mechanism. RQ6, MI, MI companion, BoQ, and the RQ app. While this is hardly necessary, it does nevertheless Inspire in me the desire to express to those responsible my appreciation of their efforts. I am an American, and as such have spent the majority of my life as a BRP user in the shadow of the D&D d20 heritage. RuneQuest has always held a special place in my heart, and with the recent return of the RQ name, so too has returned my love of role-playing. I use these rules to entertain many members of my university Anthropology Society, a group for whom the specific details of reality are never lost. As a result, they will only ever accept RQ6 as their system, and the mythic settings it easily supports.

On behalf of myself, my friends, and the EWU Anthro Society, I would like to thank Loz and Pete both for dragging the d100 model I have always embraced into the 21st century.

You know, its things like this that make my week. From the bottom of our hearts, Pete and I thank you (and the EWU Anthro Society). It is very much appreciated.

:-)

Will those general files be available to those of us who pre-ordered RQ6 the first time around, in 2012? And if so, how? I checked Glorantha.com and DesignMechanism.com and neither lists the order I made back then.

Yes they will. The updated file is being uploaded to Moon Design today and you'll be able to update your PDF from their archive.

We're glad you like them. It was a nice surprise for Fenix to allow us to publish the articles, because we had thought they wanted to keep them 'in-house' (which is perfectly acceptable given they commissioned them in the first place), but it was also a huge surprise that they allowed us to reprint the same layout from the magazine.

So, we think Fenix is the Best Roleplaying Magazine Anywhere Ever. There's a small, but very enthusiastic RQ/BRP contingent in Scandinavia, and its great to have this level of support. We also like being able to bring the wider community these articles, so its worked out very nicely for everyone all-round.

The rather wonderful folk at Sweden's Fenix magazine (http://www.speltidningen.se/) have not only given us permission to reproduce Pete's series of RQ6 articles, they've sent us the full PDFs of the magazine pages. We've placed them in the Downloads (www.thedesignmechanism.com/downloads) section of the website and will add to them as we're allowed to do so.

Its a very, very generous gesture by Fenix and we're very grateful for the content. Enjoy the series!

PS: The articles are in English.

another 5-10 others.

The quoted list is not exhaustive. Jeff was talking off-the-cuff.

What would be great would be a single interface with a series of radio buttons or other option choosing mechanism to select the system of your choice: RQ6, BRP, CoC, MW etc etc, and then hit the Generate button with the output formatted and statted to your selected system.

It would be quite a fantastic community development/achievement. How likely it is to happen... who knows?

Is this for all buyers or just Indiegogo backers?

Indiegogo backers first. I will be updating the general files in due course, but only once all the backers have their copies (coz they funded the changes and its only fair).

ETA is still late october, or am I mistaken?

It will be early November. As Pete says, just the art (which is not far from being finished). Printing usually takes about 4 weeks.

Everything about the poniard is correct. Its a stylised parrying dagger used, typically, by the nobility and is a cultural weapon. Its price and statistics are deliberate.

Interesting. Well 5 stats on 3d6, let's assume 11 is 55. Two stats on 2d6+6 (13) is 26.

That's 81, so round off and I think that's your answer. Does Legend use 2d6+6 for Siz and Int? If not then they're rounding up to 80. [Actually I am sure the number predates Mongoose publishing MRQ and come from earlier Chaosium games.]

I'd say adjust by the heroic level of your game. For example Elric! was always 2d6+6 for all stats, so that's 7*13 which is 91, round off to 90..

But I have no sources for this, just a calculator.

This.

Its based on the average of the seven characteristics, rounded down.

PM sent.

Burned through the pages- looking mostly for style, etc.

PS- lots of good/great information in those pages - much more than I realized when I was just jumping around looking at it originally

Got it - many thanks.

The bulk of its is stylistic. Some is easy to do, some is POV-based, and some can't be changed easily, or has been done that way for a reason. However, good work, and thank you again.

To answer your questions...

1) is this helping or am I wasting my time?

No, it helps.

2) if this is helping, what is the "deadline" to get these in the new hardcover?

You have 14 days.

3) should I put these here and on the Design Mechanism site? (or is just here OK)

Neither. PM me.

4) should I put them in 1 post instead of posting as I find them?

One post.

5) do I get my non-human starting age chart if I post enough of them?

No.

Also, in an industry that is losing players every year, I'm not sure that doing what everyone else does is the best strategy.....

That's an entirely separate thread, and characteristic value charts are a tiny, tiny part of it.

The reason the hobby is contracting is because times and tastes change. It used to be that trainspotting, stamp collecting and CCGs were all the rage. All hobbies diminish as their enthusiasts age, technology alters, and so on. I'm sure there's a ton of stuff that could be done to attract new roleplayers, or players from other systems: but it requires a very dedicated strategy and, probably, far more money than we've got.

Again, not trying to argue. I just personally would like the information and perhaps others may as well.

I know. But, as a game designer and publisher, I'm forever balancing wants, needs, likes and must haves against page counts, budgets, deadlines and sales...

YMMV

:-)

I know you're going to say "we don't care about Characteristics, we care about skills'

We've never said this. Characteristics are fundamental to character creation. They form the basis of attributes and skills. Skills are used more frequently and more flexibly during play, but this is very different to saying we don't care about characteristics.

However, we simply don't feel that a chart showing subjective interpretations of characteristics is really going to add value. It might be in some other games, but we don't feel it is in RQ. Each characteristic gets a good paragraph of descriptive text anyway, that defines what it represents. A chart that goes from, say, 3 = Puny to 18 = Super Strong is simply a list of adjectives that, all too frequently, become set-in-stone descriptors. Plus, there'd need to be different tables, or modified tables, to show the same for non-human characters. STR 20 might be 'Charles Atlas' level for a human, but merely average for a troll (which, by the way, it is). We believe we've given very good guidance, in the descriptive text of each characteristic, in the advice on rolling for (or choosing) characteristics, and Anathaym's Saga. Its that simple.

It is true that we've de-emphasized characteristics as a resolution mechanism: either through opposition using the resistance table, or as the basis for a multiplier such as POW x3 for Luck or DEX x3 for Dodge. The emphasis has gone towards skills which have a flexibility not always present in characteristic-based resolution systems. The opposed roll system we use replaces the need for the Resistance table while building-in level of success granularity. Translating traditional BRP characteristic rolls like STR x3, CON x3 and POW x3 in Brawn, Endurance and Willpower respectively, allows them to...

1. Form part of skill considerations for cultures and professions

2. Make them improvable without the need to increase the raw characteristic

Now we know that tastes vary. That's fine. Its not difficult to make Brawn, Endurance and Willpower (and Evade, too, if you like) static %ages based on a multiplier of the key characteristic. You won't break RQ's mechanics as a result. But you will lose a certain degree of flexibility that we believe enhances the system, rather than detracts from it.

And, if you're going to argue that RQ6's characteristics do very little, then you also need to consider that, in previous versions of RQ, and some BRP variants, they did even less.

Do we want new players? Of course we do: but a lack of a characteristic chart isn't a deal-breaker. It may cause some players to scratch their heads, but honestly? Just taking a scan through some of the games on my shelf: BRP BGB, Elric!, Cthulhu 2nd Ed, Traveller (Mongoose and Classic), Paranoia 2nd Ed... none of them carry characteristic descriptions charts. So unless there's a huge problem across lots of games, I'm really not convinced there's much of an issue here at all. I don't think its quite the entry deterrent you believe it might be.

In fact, to be on the safe side, I've removed the offending table in my capacity as moderator of this section of the Forum.

Sorry, but its for the best.

We've got to get that chart into the new hardcover!

I know you're joking but really, please, don't.

That table is sexist. If it had been posted on RPGnet, there would be a shit-storm roundabout, oh, now, of immense proportions. Neither Pete nor I approve of that table - no matter how light-hearted or satirically intentioned. Believe me, its existence, even here, could cause all sorts of issues.

For the record, it absolutely will not find its way into any book Design Mechanism publishes, and I find even a light hearted suggestion that it ought to go into RQ6 almost as offensive as the table is.

And before anyone starts to snigger and moan about po-faced-can't-take-a-joke-Loz, I just hope some of you are aware of how things like this get so easily broadcast into other fora, seized-upon, and cause almighty flamewars that damage personal and professional reputations.

Why do all humans get a Movement Rate of 6M? (I do understand why'd you'd want a bunch of mooks/monsters to be the same rate for ease of play).

If I'm taller than you and my DEX is way better than yours....you can bet I'm moving these long legs farther than you are moving your slow stumpy legs.

Is it a left-over from miniature combat days? Is this to eliminate another variable that bogs down play?

It almost seems like Movement Rate should be calculated from DEX+SIZ (but then again, maybe it is more math that just gets in the way).

Read the description of the Athletics skill, page 58.

Yes.

Does this mean that a supplement for RQ6 that was akin to the Dungeon Fantasy line of PDFs from Steve Jackson for GURPS would be in order? Basically translating hack-n-slash dungeon delves into RQ6 so you don't have to?

We won't be doing such a book.

Page 48 says "Note that this table can be used for non-human characters by simply substituting the actual number of years for longer or shorter lived races."

Is there more guidance elsewhere in the book that I'm not seeing? (Making a Dwarf and not sure what starting age should be). For example, is there a chart similar to the the one below for D20?

Race Middle Age Old Venerable Maximum Age

Human 35 years 53 years 70 years +2d20 years

Dwarf 125 years 188 years 250 years +2d% years

Elf 175 years 263 years 350 years +4d% years

Gnome 100 years 150 years 200 years +3d% years

Half-elf 62 years 93 years 125 years +3d20 years

Half-orc 30 years 45 years 60 years +2d10 years

Halfling 50 years 75 years 100 years +5d20 years

No, we haven't given more guidance. Its up to you as GM what you want to allot to different species.