smiorgan

2 hours ago, Jon Hunter said:

I'm not sure why i like it so much, I feel Pavis has more flavour.

My best guess is its an environment where the players can become central and influential very quickly, where in places like Pavis someone else is driving events and PC's are always going to be a hanger on.

Also I think the sandbox nature of the setting always helps as well.

Yes, players can quickly become the Big Heroes in Balazar. And the sandbox is eminently gameable. There is just Balazar where you start and then the Elder Wilds to explore.

Pavis/ Prax is also an isolated backwater and sandbox in a way, but is already a much bigger world with connected but very distinct sub-settings with no obvious order of play.

- New Pavis

- The Big Rubble

- The River of Cradles: Sun County

- The River of Cradles: Borderlands / Lunar Grantlands

- Prax proper, west of the River of Cradles

- the Wastelands, east of the River of Cradles    

 There are at least four starting points/ home bases: New Pavis, Sun County, Borderlands (Duke's Raus fort) and the nomad tribes themselves.

On 1/2/2016 at 7:30 AM, jsnead said:

I specifically designed After the Vampire Wars as an urban fantasy setting which included Seers & Enlightened Sorcerers & Alchemists (from Enlightened Magic), as well as vampires (with new rules for old powerful vampires), three sorts of sort of shape-shifters, psychics, fae, and half-fae (and everything but the fae are possible options for PCs.)

I own Liber Ka for Nephilim. How different is Enlightened Magic from Liber Ka? Is it a straight conversion from Nephilim to BRP?

13 hours ago, Rick Meints said:

When Stormbringer was first announced in a Chaosium catalog in 1981 it is described as "the young kingdoms comes to life in this RuneQuest based Roleplaying system." Call of Cthulhu was also described as "RuneQuest based, the game provides for lively quasi-modern fantasy horror role-playing." 

Absolutely true. And my chart had them correctly stemming straight from RQ2!

I'm very proud of it but I should redo the speculative future part of my chart because it is now outdated. I made it when it seemed that RQ Glorantha was going to be straight RQ6.

But first I have to recover the original file of the chart... I fear it was lost in a computer crash...

On 28/12/2015 at 11:55 AM, MOB said:

For sure! Have you seen the excellent introductory scenario for the new edition of Call of Cthulhu? It's a solo adventure called "Alone Against the Flames", and takes the reader through generating a character and puts the rules through their paces (available free for download at chaosium.com). Something like that would be excellent for the new RQ edition, and we have it in mind...

 

"Alone against the flames" is a very good introductory scenario. It almost managed to convince me that CoC7 is basically still CoC and not an unholy abomination.

I'd be delighted  to see a new RQ solo!

On 28/12/2015 at 10:22 AM, Jeff said:

I've been using Dorastor's Riskland campaign for playtesting RQ4 for what it is worth. 

Things mentioned about the development of RQ4: Pendragon's character generation and winter phase - the RQ Vikings campaign with the various families and steads -  the Riskland campaign with the River of Frogs steads... Do I see a pattern here? 

On 28/12/2015 at 10:22 AM, Jeff said:

The only dilemma comes with AP (since RQ2 and RQ3 differed on AP and ENC) - and here we are inclined to hew towards RQ2 (for reasons too lengthy to go into here). 

Well, one reason to lean towards RQ2 I can see is that soon there will be a ton of material back in print. But I'm sure it's not the only one.

2 hours ago, Jeff said:

even if the RQ4 characters use different operating mechanics, the RQ Classic stat blocks should be 90%-95% compatible and much more compatible than with RQ6.

Jeff you just made my day. This is very important to me.

Obviously what you say of RQ2-RQ7 ...ehr RQ4 applies also to the RQ3 stat block. The relatively important differences in the stat block viz previous editions is one of the few things I did not like of RQ6. For instance, at a given moment I wanted to use the RQ3 Dorastor book with RQ6 - it's full of beasties and each requires detailed conversion. Yes, there is the wonderful online RQ6 generator but it's not like picking up a book and just use it. You could do it between RQ2 and RQ3 and I'd be delighted to find that you can do it also with RQ7 ...erh RQ4...

Obviously the magic will be different to better reflect Glorantha, but there are many things, such as the damage of weapons, the damage bonus progression, the number of hit points per location etc. that now do not have much reason to be slightly different as they were in the Mongoose RQ lineage.   

I have voted more adventures and settings.

What I'd love to see for Open Quest in 2016 is basically 

Crypts & Things d100

with sword and sorcery rules variants

setting

converted scenarios frm Crypts & Things

Second best, almost ex aequo, a post-apocalyptic setting with adventures.

Third best, well anything else really. I'm sure it will be good.

1 hour ago, MOB said:

Just passed 2000 backers, and a bit over 5K will get us to Borderlands. 12 hours remaining...

Hats off to Chaosium! 2000 backers for RQ is pretty huge. Just to have some reference points the CoC kickstarter was 3,668.

On 15/12/2015 at 0:50 AM, Questbird said:

My curiosity was aroused so I bought Sense of the Sleight of Hand Man in pdf form yesterday.

Let me know your impressions. I'm considering doing the same.

20 hours ago, Simlasa said:

I prefer it dark and sinister myself... high dark fantasy (if there is such a thing). Dunsany and Smith seem to often have things go badly... or at least strangely for their protagonists so I'd want to retain that sense of danger, rather than the power fantasy of modern D&D. Thief of Baghdad as directed by David Lynch. 

This. High dark fantasy, exoticism, melancholy, arbitrariness, and a hint of twisted fairy tale. And characters are from the waking world, not natives so that the place is new to them.

I think a lot of work should be put on the dreaming powers (Dreaming skill in CoC) so that the PC can become co-creators of the world while remaining highly vulnerable to it (including the things they have created!).

Indirect literary inspiration on people's dream creations could come from Mythago Wood (the first book is scary as hell!) and Moorcock's Fortress of the Pearl (btw MRQ Elric has rules for MM's Lands of Dream).

If I'm not mistaken before CoC was a thing Sandy Petersen was working at a RQ Dreamlands supplement which he tried to pitch to Chaosium. They asked him to do CoC instead.

Now, should Chaosium consider developing the Dreamlands as their own thing? This is not necessarily an alternative as having them as an option for CoC adventures.

I've always had the impression that RPG fans (I don't enter the discussion of purely literary appreciacion here) are divided on the Dreamlands issue. Some just dislike them or don't care about them. Those who like them are divided between those that see them as fully integrated in the CoC universe and rpg (e.g. having Dreamlands interludes in regular CoC campaigns (e.g. Spawn of Azathoth) and those who think that they are better seen as their own thing at least to some degree (e.g. as in the campaign "The Dreaming Stone".

Furthermore, people disagree on the portrayal of the Dreamlands and on the kind of scenarios. Is it mostly about symbols, the subconscious, the psyche and the self? Or is it more about escapist adventures in realms beyond imagination? Compare Mark Morrison's scenario about Xura in the earlier editions of the Dreamlands supplement vs. the different portrayal of Zura in the revised supplement, which is based on Brian Lumley.

So, how do you want to play in the Dreamlands? And which dreamlands? 

23 hours ago, SDLeary said:

So a pen and paper Video Game! Hope you guys can pull this off better than Mongoose did.

SDLeary

No, we have no reason at all to think it will be like a video game. On the other hand, I guess it will be very Pendragon-like. For that there is evidence in the announcement and in the podcast.

22 minutes ago, Simlasa said:

The shelves inside were bare but there was still signage that let me know it would have been a treasure trove... if only I'd found it earlier.

Scary. That's definitely a CoC Dreamlands scenario.

I'd say pure Glorantha. No plane hopping. My idea is mostly having a rules light version of RQ2 that still feels old school and converts on the fly during play.

Of course, Stormbringer demon rules could be used to generate lots of chaos creatures,

Actually, I also want something that is readily available in Italian. Unfortunately RQ2 and RQ3 were never translated in italian. The old school flavors of d100 available in Italian are Stormbringer and original BRP Magic World. Both could work for a lighter RQ2. I slightly prefer Stormbringer 

MRQ2 and RQ6 are also available in Italian - great games, but they are neither old school nor rules light. OpenQuest is available in Italian and is as rules light as it gets, but not enough old school...

You see the main purpose is just to tinker...

Just an idea I might try for quick old-school one shots in Pavis/ Prax or for faster RQ2 solo gaming:

Stormbringer rules (1 to 4, does not matter much which) + RQ2 magic and cults = 

Stormbuller!

A fast and brutal old school game of Gloranthan goners battling Chaos and being stabbed in Pavis' back-alleys.

Books Needed:

- Stormbringer 4th edition (or earlier)

- RQ2

- Cult Compendium (or the original RQ2 cult books)

- Pavis, Big Rubble, Borderlands etc.

Monster conversions on the fly. May use MagicWorld to eyeball rolled armor of creatures.

Convert spells on the fly if need be.

Initiates gain Elan as per Stormbringer rules.

Elementals may use more open-ended Stormbringer-ish rules.

Might create characteristic bonuses for Gloranthan human cultures as in Stormbringer for YK.

Use Stormbringer professions without adaptation: Priest becomes Initiate

Non-humans have RQ2 characteristics.

2 minutes ago, Jeff said:

The new edition of RuneQuest is built around the unique requirements of the setting and the hint is in the name.

So, actually questing for the runes. That will interesting after all those years of RQ not being that much about the runes.

Actually, MRQ1 tried to do that in a way but it did not work.   

3 hours ago, Rick Meints said:

 Chaosium is very focused on publishing books with writing, editing, art and layout that wow people, like the new Petersen Guide to Lovecraftian Horrors. Unfortunately, we can't fix every title overnight with the limited time and budgets we have.

 I appreciate that enormously. Over the last few years Chaosium content continued to be mostly good or very good but editing-layout-art standards had gone down from the very good levels of classic Chaosium, while the rpg industry average had improved in the meantime.

Any news of this title?

It made a brief appearance around GenCon. The last I heard from Rick Meints was

Quote

Cthulhu Dark Ages is being redone. After the Vampire Wars is being worked on too. They'll be back soon enough.

How soon is soon enough? How worked is worked on? Is it more like getting another editing pass to catch the few remaining typos and layout glitches or more like totally rebuilding it on the foundations of the new RQ-BRP to and combining it with enlightened-not-nephilim-magic to become the definitive urban fantasy rpg of the next decade?

1 hour ago, NickMiddleton said:

I really must take another look at my musings of what can be achieved with the Legend OGL and d100ii SRD's in relation to cloning Magic World...

Nick

I think this is totally doable. 

3 hours ago, Baulderstone said:

Loz just said over in the TDM forum that they aren't looking to license anything at the moment, so it seems unlikely. It would be nice for the excellent MRQ II Elric rules to get a final TDM polish though.

That's understandable. Licenses are a lot of additional hassle and don't guarantee commercial success (except the very expensive ones!).

They probably have enough non-licensed settings in store to produce books for the next few years.

A question for Loz,

Now that the fortunes of TDM and Chaosium are separated and The Game Soon to be Formerly Known as RQ6 will walk alone...

WILL YOU ASK MICHAEL MOORCOCK TO DO STORMBRINGER?

Will you? 

Please. Pretty, please?

The French Mournblade game - of which MM is quite pleased - is good evidence that the man is not turned against licensing to RPGs. And that he is not asking a fortune in royalties (the French  market likes Stormbringer, but I seriously doubt Sombres Projets is making huge money!)

I am currently running an Elric game with the RQ6 engine and MRQ2 Elric rules. It's just the beginning but it's quite fun.

MRQ2 Elric rules are pretty good. Just marred by the abysmal editing, layout and art standards of Mongoose. And they're not standalone.

BTW, the French stole a lot from MRQ2 Elric for their Mournblade game!

A standalone RQ6 Stormbringer book would seriously rock. Maybe a deal can be made with Sombres Projets to use their art and stuff. In return they could use some TDM materials like adventures etc.

 Do it! Please.

On 1/12/2015 at 0:56 AM, Agentorange said:

Just to add to this, the Worlds Of Cthulhu magazine did a fine  write up of CAS Averoigne setting for Cthulhu Dark Ages spread across several issues, spells, beasts, geography etc etc. I thought it was rather good.

This is something I'd like to see as a book from Chaosium. Either as a CoC supplement or as a standalone BRP game.

5 hours ago, deleriad said:

"RuneQuest 4" and "Adventures in Glorantha" [....] It makes an interesting read these days (along with RuneQuest Slayers or whatever it was eventually called.) Those were dark, dark days in the d100 verse.

I've always been intimidated by RQ4 AiG (I've a playtest copy).

On the other hand, RQ Slayers actually looks like a fun little game of barbarian slayers in a dark primitive sword-and-sorcery world. I might actually play it. The funny thing is that it's a game that has zero connection with RQ. I wonder what Avalon Hill were thinking when developing that game. It has hit-locations. That's the one thing they kept from RQ! 

C'est excellent!  Surtout l'adaptation au royaume des légendes! 

28 minutes ago, Trifletraxor said:

I like the ticks! And my players get to tick-chase as much as they want within certain limits. We have 3 major (+ some lesser) campaigns going on at any time, so skills going through the roof is not a problem.

Yes tick-chase can even work in favor of good role-playing as a powerful instigator to action and thinking out of the box. Like, the character wants to raise his horse riding so he decides that he is going to impress the young countess with his horseman prowess...

The GM might restrict the awarding of ticks to special moments where the players have to surmount an obstacle with creative use of their skills. In D&D4 these were called skill challenges. You set the difficulty (e.g. 6 successes before 3 failures, one fumble and you're out, criticals make the following roll easy) but it's not necessary that you pre-define the relevant skills. You let your players narrate why their skill rolls are relevant. Each skill challenge is a tick-lottery (e.g. a 6 successes challenge gives 6 experience ticks, plus immediate 1% increase for each critical and fumble). Outside of challenges or combat no ticks are awarded. 

That's a very gamist option and might not be for everyone's taste.