lawrence.whitaker

We won't discuss the Galley Slave incident, either.

We'd love to get something like this put together, but it is a question of time for us. Who knows - we might record one of the 'Winter King' sessions I'll be running this week, so you can see how a nice, kind GM nurtures and cherishes his players, rather than subjecting them to the the roleplaying equivalent of waterboarding...

It just gets worse the more you read it, there are missing stats, duplicated stats, references to D&D artifacts, to divine magic spells. I wasn't sure what the strange elements were until Pete & Loz pointed it's using MRQ1, and when I look at now it seems all the NPCs and monsters are using MRQ1 skills, systems, magic but even given that it's still a mess.

There are some MRQII/Legend elements in there, but they've been applied incorrectly and inconsistently. I have found one instance of the Insight skill in an NPC stat block, but only one. Some creatures don't have Persistence and/or Resilience skills listed, which are fundamental to quite a few Combat Manoeuvres. As you say, there are also some missing stats (Hit Locations and Hit Points on two stat blocks that I've found).

The magic is just... bizarre. The opening statements about how to treat magic begin well enough, but fizzle into a rather useless (because there are no examples or guidance notes) blanket statement. How is one meant to treat a Common Magic spell such as Disruption for instance? As a sorcery spell? If it weren't for the stupidly low casting and manipulation skills, a manipulated Disruption spell could easily mean a TPK within a couple of rounds.

I have a feeling that the adapter may have interpreted the separate magic systems in Legend as simply being spell lists from separate sources, with sorcery having a couple of additional bells and whistles in the form of manipulation. In reality, the different magic systems are graded quite carefully to reflect the escalating powers of the caster depending on the tradition. To not grasp that, or apply the rules correctly, indicates that the adapter either:

a) didn't read the rules properly

didn't understand them and didn't reach out to check

Either way, magic is barked.

You know, I really HATE trashing a product. I know how tough converting an existing book is into another system: I had to do it several times at Mongoose and its always far more work than it appears. However, despite being an obvious competitor to Legend, I'm always keen to see a well-applied book using mechanics I've written and so I was looking forward to SGB: I would've liked to be able to recommend it to RQ6 players who are after a dose of Conan-esque Sword and Sorcery. But with these extensive errors, I just can't, which is sad.

I've also noticed some strange inconsistencies in the NPC stat blocks.

Some NPCs have a Strike Rank of 0

Strike Rank is calculated correctly in some NPCs, but incorrectly in others. Some of this may be down to rounding errors (Legend always rounds up), but also I think the adapter has included SIZ in some of the SR calculations. This was an error in MRQII, clarified in the errata, and should have been included in Legend.

Strike Rank penalties for armour are highly inconsistent. Some seem to include a penalty; others don't.

There also seems to be a hold-over of the skill penalty for wearing armour found in MRQ1. Arahua, for example, on page 108, has his combat skills reduced by 20% from their base which would be consistent with a -20% Armour Penalty for his four hit locations with 5 AP per location: this is the MRQ1 way of doing things. Yet Legend doesn't penalise skills in this way.

The inclusion of some skills - Boating for instance - that won't be of much use or consequence; and the omission of others that would be of huge use, such as Insight.

So there does seem to be a strange mix of MRQ1, MRQII and Legend in The Spider God's Bride. These should've been error-trapped in both editing and proof-reading. It also signals a lack of understanding of the system on the parts of the developers and the editor. Given that several adapters have been involved in the project, greater attention to the mechanical conversions should've been given. Adapting the fluff text is straightforward enough, but people will be buying Spider God's Bride for the statistics. Unfortunately, they're inconsistent, unreliable and just downright odd. A shame.

Matt said that the book was cursed. I think he was right.

Just spotted my typo... 'weeks', not week...

But thank you for your support!

Yes, that's right. We'll be adding pre-orders for Monster Island and Book of Quests in the next few weeks.

And yes, stuff in the RQ Archives on Drivethru - most of the old Mongoose Glorantha material - is, indeed, $1 a pop.

We've finally installed an online store on our website. You can now order direct through us.

Buying direct helps us enormously. You will also be entitled to a free PDF copy of any book you buy once your print order has been processed.

We really look forward to seeing you.

Our Downloads page now includes 'Caravan', a full scenario taken from the forthcoming Book of Quests. Join Jhonen's caravan and make your way into The Realm's northern reaches, travelling to remote Aylesford and a grim secret...

Can we have more information about the nefarious sorcerer and the Realm?

There'll be lots in the book.

:-)

The cover for Book of Quests can be found on our News page.

It seems like people really like RQ6, but, I am not sure I want to dive into that because the Glorantha canon seems to come along with it.

Hi Mithrandir, and welcome to the world of BRP!

RQ6 doesn't carry ANY Glorantha canon at all. Its a generic set of rules skewed towards gritty fantasy. If you like Legend, you'll like RQ6. Its a far more refined version of those rules with many more options. You won't find a single thing in there related to Glorantha, so you needn't feel that diving into RQ6 also means diving into Glorantha, because it doesn't.

Lots of exciting stuff just posted at The Design Mechanism and on the News page...

Happy Holidays!

... or be shipwrecked there with no choice and have to survive...

>:-)

Unless you're an energetic movie producer eager to capture sights no Western man has ever seen ...

Which was precisely the inspiration for the cover and the book...!

Can be found on our News page...

I got a question about the differential roll and combat.

If I attack with a 68% in broadsword and I roll a 57, this is a success.

My opponent attempts to parry with their broadsword skill of 52% with his sword and rolls a 32, which is also a success.

Both combatants succeeded. I succeeded with a higher number. Do I do damage? Or does he parry and negate my attack?

I think this has been answered on the Design Mechanism website...

I wonder where they get this information.

Usually its a mixture of research and personal experience. Wherever we can, we look into what's realistic rather than just making stuff up. There's plenty of documentation on survival rates, ambient temperatures, exposure effects, wind-chill and so on.

Plus, Pete lives in the far north of Sweden where it gets exceedingly cold. The town he lives in is a garrison, lots of very good, accurate, local source material.

Stripped-down rules supplements like these are great, but they're much harder to produce than you might think.

For RQ6 we'd have to pare away a lot of what makes RQ6 the game it is; or condense the material to a point where it becomes difficult to use. Magic is a case in point; combat is another.

You also need to write such rules from the ground-up. Its incredibly tough to just remove large swathes of text and hope that it all fits neatly together and, crucially, makes sense. That takes time, and its time taken away from other, more pressing projects.

I'm not dismissing the idea at all; just noting that the effort involved is more substantial than it might first appear. For that reason, its not something that's on our list of priorities. Of course, if anyone out there wants to take a stab at it, drop me a PM and we can talk further.

We're delighted to announce the release of our first App for Android devices.

This Combat Effects calculator removes the need for reference sheets and rules flipping at the table, helping you find and choose the most appropriate combat effect, along with its details and appropriate charts, with a simple couple of clicks.

Its available on Google Play and costs just $0.99. Compatible with Android v1.2 and higher.

The Gateway license is ready.

Drop me a PM.

Where are the Barsoom radium guns?

Still on Barsoom, of course!

SWEET! Thanks Pete and Loz!

I am assuming that the example 10 mm Pistol is supposed to be a 10 mm Auto rather than a .40 S&W, as it does more damage than a .45.

SDLeary

Probably. I just did the energy weapons and layout. Neither of us are gun bunnies, but Pete did the necessary research when writing this, so he can answer with more accuracy.

Bloody hell - you beat me to the official announcement! :-)

Glad you like it. We had fun with this one.

You can find it at: Downloads

Here is a huge difference between GURPS and RQ. In GURPS, you choose your maneuver before rolling, as you would do in real life. You try to do something precise and then, you see whether you succeed.

Yes, choosing an effect in RQ is done after the fact. There are two rationales for this.

1. As in real life

While some effects will be chosen as part of the strategy to hit, some are a result of how the opponent reacts and what opportunities are then open to the attacker (or defender) as a result. Remember that in RQ a defender can also choose a special effect if he scores a better success than the attacker. I don't know if GURPS works in this way, but certainly where RQ is concerned it widens the scope of effect use.

2. Skill Rolls

Usually, in systems where an effect is selected before an attack, some form of penalty is applied to the roll. This isn't necessarily realistic because it reduce the overall chance of doing anything. By waiting to see the outcome of both attack and defence rolls, RQ keeps the overall chance of success stable and makes it dependent on what defence is offered, and how good that defence roll is.

Nclarke has given the best advice. Grab the GM's Guide (noting the two rather wonderful scenarios in there) and the Special Effects tables and descriptions.

They offer LOTS of options and turn fights that generally result in 'stop when one of you dies' into tactical ballets that can have some terrific outcomes. My favourite of all the Effects is Compel Surrender. I've used this, and seen it used, to spectacular game effect during our playtests.

A good way of dealing with this is to wait until after the sun sets and use artificial light to illuminate the scene rather than the glare from the window.

It wasn't an option, unfortunately.