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lawrence.whitaker

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Everything posted by lawrence.whitaker

  1. It is the case but in a modified form, because Elric cults mechanics have some specifics that don't fit other settings and vice versa.
  2. Registration opens on the Friday at 2pm. Rooms generally have to be vacated by 10am on the Monday.
  3. Greetings Continuees, I'm delighted to announce that, with effect from tomorrow, 15th November, Continuum 2010 is open for registrations. The event is to be held at John Foster Hall, University of Leicester, from Friday 2nd July 2010, until Monday 5th July 2010. The registration pricing is as follows: Early Bird Registration (15th November 2009 - 15th February 2010: £20 Standard Reg (February 16th onwards): £25 En-Suite Room per night: £45 En-Suite for 3 Nights: £120 Twin Room per night: £90 Twin Room for 3 Nights: £240 There are two ways to register: Via Paypal. Our email address for Paypal payments is payment@continuum.uk.net. Please include the following: Your name Address Number of nights accommodation required, and the nights you'll be staying Any special rooming requirements (ie, I want be next door to X, Y or Z) Don't forget that, in addition to the room cost you need to include your registration fee. Thus, a single night would cost £20+£45 = £65. Registration is a fixed fee for the whole weekend - so you don't need to pay a registration fee for each night you need. Twin rooms are limited in numbers, but en-suite rooms - and all single rooms are en-suite - are plentiful and comfortable. If you wish to register by snail mail, a registration form will be made available shortly and we will accept cheque payments. The address to send a paper registration to is: Continuum 53 Stepping Lane Derby DE1 1GL We look forward to welcoming you to Continuum 2010 - The Year the Con Made Contact! Lawrence.
  4. Consider us both having 400% in each skill.
  5. We both have very high Resilience and Persistence, so you won't get anymore out of either of us this side of December. Yes - eventually! Thanks for asking.
  6. Chaosium's first ed of RQ appeared in 1978. Second edition in 1980. 3rd ed in 1984. So, 6 years and 3 editions - or, a new edition every 2 years, on average. Mongoose's edition appeared in 2006 and its next will appear in 2010. The maths aren't that hard to do. Every game has issues. Everything can always be improved. Errors are always found in hindsight. Nothing is ever perfect. MRQ2 (easiest way to avoid confusion) is intended to improve and build upon a lot of the excellent concepts found in the first edition (and yes, it has some), correct known faults, correct inconsistencies, and introduce and formalise new concepts introduced on subsequent rules expansions for the MRQ line. Its worth pointing out that, no matter what your opinions of Mongoose or how its handled RuneQuest, it is has continually supported the system, developed it, and invested a lot of time in supporting Glorantha. That will continue with the new rules. I can't talk anymore about what will be in MRQ2 until after the State of the Mongoose posting on Planet Mongoose at the end of December, but after that, both Pete Nash and I will be only too happy to discuss things freely.
  7. The Traveller career process is great fun - and more so under Mongoose Traveller. No, its not realistic at all, but it does offer the opportunity to create characters with some interesting history snippets, skeletons in the closet, enemies, friends and contacts. The 'Connections' rule is also superb, giving characters a reason to know each other, and be adventuring, by sharing a history snippet and being rewarded, skill-wise, because of it. I've worked on several extended career paths for various Traveller books I've penned, and they're always one of the most fun areas of the rules to work on. If you think a little about the career you're reflecting, and a specialisation within it (Naval Gunner, for instance; or Psionic Rebel; or Mutant Bounty Hunter) then you can come up with some really great background colour for characters. But, writing the career paths is time consuming, especially when you offer specialisations within a career. So you may want to consider a more streamlined way of doing it. Also, are you including a Survival roll? That's a standard Traveller trope, and a failed Survival roll leads to a Mishap Event, which can also be good fun, too. If you do end-up using a career path system, you'll need to work that decision into the design mechanism.
  8. But the 4/20 connection is still pertinent...
  9. How is 3d6 and 2d6+6 a difference in scale? The upper limit is 18 in both cases, and d6 are the primary method of achieving the result. Only the minimum and average results differ (3/11 and 8/13 respectively). From a roleplaying perspective, it is far easier to play a character with an INT close to your own. Of course, some roleplayers love the challenge of playing someone who's dimmer than they are, and make a magnificent fist of it. But it is probably far harder to consistently play a dim character than it is to play a character with an INT stat that, most likely matches their own. Given this, INT rolled on 2d6+6 is a logical way of avoiding the low-INT extremes. Yes, you can end-up with a character who is smarter than you; but that's what the skills and rolls are for - to arbitrate those times when a character will know more than you do. If the rules said roll INT and SIZ on 4d8 and drop the lowest - or some other method that is clearly, fundamentally, different to how the other five are rolled, then I'd say you may have a point. So, sure, having 3d6 across all stats offers consistency, but that doesn't necessarily make it the best method. Much depends on genre and style of play for refs and GMs. But I really don't accept that a 2d6+6 roll for SIZ and INT is breaking the system to the point you're complaining about. I have never, ever, in 20+ years of GMing has any player complain, or fail to understand, why SIZ and INT are rolled on 2d6+6. Its always struck me and my players - and I've had a diverse lot - as being easily understandable and quite reasonanle. Maybe that's me. Or maybe its simply a non-issue. And I really think this is a non-issue. You clearly want to have a rant about something, Harwel, but I'm sure there are other BRP rules that are more deserving of a rant (opposed rolls, for instance, he's says, and ducks for cover), than two out of seven stats being rolled slightly differently.
  10. Caldaria...? Its latin for Cooking Pot, but is also where the word Caldera comes from.
  11. I know for sure that there will be another 12-year old at Tentacles - so your son won't be alone. Tentacles has always been reasonably kid-friendly; I've taken my son before, and we've practically watched Lutz Reimers-Rawcliffe's daughter grow-up!
  12. Having had a sneak preview of Rome, I can tell you that its a stunning-looking book - in terms of content, layout and art. Pete, Dario and Paolo have done a wonderful job. I wish this (perhaps the definitive Rome book, whether a roleplayer or not) every success - and it deserves vast amounts of it! Loz
  13. Alas, I can't be there, but I'm sure you'll all have a blast (and Pete's deputising for me).
  14. It is a dragon; not sure if its Aroka or Sh'harkazeel, but a True Dragon, nonetheless. But sdavies720's description is ace. Have you read Warren Ellis's 'Planetary'? Precisely what's described here is shown visually in one of the episodes of that comic book series.
  15. Thanks Frogspawner; better to have a separate thread. Really though, this is a debate for the Mongoose boards. But, as we're here, here are some thoughts from me. 1. Rule anomalies. No need to list every single one, but combat, rune magic and sorcery (divine magic to a lesser extent) need some TLC. 2. Glorantha. Cults (structure, runes, magic, and how they work); some drawing together of disparate elements into a single source document. Correction of some inaccuracies that found their way into the Glorantha: The Second Age book. Both these areas will be getting attention. I cannot and will not say more at this stage. What I can tell you is that the forthcoming 'Guilds, Factions and Cults' starts the ball rolling vis a vis cults and magic; but there will be more. That book should be out round about May/June. Rosen McStern mentioned how HeroQuest is handling runes and cults; its a pertinent point. I'm part of the HQ design team in that regard, so I'm working towards consistency of approach and application between both systems. Different mechanics, obviously, but the ethos is the same. And its essentially this: If you join a cult and rise within it, you gain runes. Runes are powers within a god's nature, so as you develop your relationship with your cult, you become more like your god, chanelling his or her magic and becoming capable of acting in the ways they did during the God Time - both in the mundane world and when HeroQuesting. One other thing, which comes back to Dragonewt's comment on MRQ not capturing the 'feel' and 'magic' of the old RQ2 era; I can see his point, but again, I'd say that the design philosophy isn't to replicate what was in the old classics like 'Griffin Mountain'. Second Age Glorantha's a different place, for a start, but as one of the authors for Glorantha, the aim is to try to bring a different feel, hopefully with its own magic. One of the criticisms often levelled at Glorantha is how impenetrable it can be for a newcomer to get into it. Glorantha's accessibility will drive its longevity, as long as it caters for the old grognards and new fans. That means striking a balance and doing things in a different way. I'm certainly keen to do that, and have been playing RQ and in Glorantha for two decades. Books like 'Dara Happa Stirs' aim to bring that sense of wonder back, but in ways that newcomers won't find daunting or clouded in the immense esoterica that has grown up around Glorantha and, sometimes, clouds and intimidates, what should be a fun game setting. There's room for both schools - but the execution needs to be different. There's a mission to achieve that. Lawrence.
  16. I think Matthew Sprange would be first to admit that he's no Glorantha buff. But to suggest that Greg Stafford is out of touch with a world that he's spent more than 30 years developing (and still is) is ... quite incredible. Still, Your Glorantha Will Vary. Might be worth remembering that. It wasn't. The aim was to make runes more of a physical focus for the game, thus reflecting its name. I do agree that chasing physical manifestations of runes isn't the way they should work in Glorantha; but it wasn't a deliberate act of sabotage (which is what you're suggesting, Frogspawner). For what its worth, I'm looking very closely at how runes need to work in preparation for something I'm working on Glorantha-wise. And no. I won't share my ideas here; they're not finished yet. But just so you know that the subject and mechanics are being looked at.
  17. Not for Herowars/HeroQuest, but as mentioned before, there is the Dragonewts book for MRQ.
  18. The draconic magic in that article isn't especially comprehensive; a handful of effects that dragonewts at different stages have access to, but actually quite limited in scope. The magic in the two MRQ books is far more comprehensive. even with the mystical/martial arts focus.
  19. That's probably the Dragonewt article. You'll find extensive draconic magic in both 'Magic of Glorantha' and 'Dragonewts' for MRQ. Both are BRP compatible.
  20. And nor should it. I would certainly never advocate that you don't buy Chaosium's material because I, or anyone else, haven't been paid; that's a relationship between me and Chaosium to sort out; I'm sure Jason will say the same. What the situation does for me is shake my confidence in wanting to write more for them, or move to support BRP with Gwenthia. Nothing more, and certainly no boycotts.
  21. I think this is very much the case. This isn't a a new position for Chaosium, and its not a case of being crooked; but it is disappointing because you always hope the situation will change.
  22. Judging by Jason's qualification about payment, I think Gwenthia will stay where it is, publishing direction-wise. I'm also still waiting for my monograph payment for Hawkmoon... I wrote it off at least a year ago, but if Chaosium can't even manage to meet a $500 agreement for something I put all the creative, editorial and layout effort into (and they had decent sales from), then I've no confidence in getting a solid position on a formal book for Gwenthia. Very, very sad.
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