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Bill the barbarian

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Posts posted by Bill the barbarian

    What would a new character know? Any resources outlining what a new character might know?

    in RuneQuest

    Posted

    6 minutes ago, Ian Absentia said:

    Enh.  Molecular chemistry, quantum physics, genetic mutation, chaos theory, and global climate change.  Sometimes it's not of practical use to wrap your head around the Big Stuff when you're trying to get home from the grocery in time to make dinner.

     

    I would think that all that you mention wold be known about by the average citizen who would be able to say a bit about each of them (possible incorrectly, but still) so... would you bring then up to  the average bronze age citizen plaiying his fave RPG Advanced A&A (attorneys and accountants), perhaps not. Would the bronze age role-player need to know need to know, I suppose not. It depends on who is playing. eh,  Should Joerg be playing in your game this eve, I would recommend having both PDFs of the GtG open and ready of searching.

    Cheers

    What would a new character know? Any resources outlining what a new character might know?

    in RuneQuest

    Posted

    17 minutes ago, Ian Absentia said:

    Think about the big questions of real world science and Why Things Are the Way They Are.  Then consider how often you really concern yourself with them on a daily basis.

     

    Yes.

     

    18 minutes ago, Ian Absentia said:

    Start small, ignore the Big Stuff, then specialise.

     

    Just the weirdness of your area first, agreed,  but Ian,  surely one would want to at least say flat world multiple gods who make up the world elements and are very tangible but removed, the red moon, and maybe the dragon rise. :)

     

    What would a new character know? Any resources outlining what a new character might know?

    in RuneQuest

    Posted

    17 minutes ago, lordabdul said:

    KoS, page 107, although both S:KoH and SC have very similar maps (different framing, portrait orientation, and in colour).

    This to me is exactly why it feels so intimidating to start any kind of Gloranthan campaign.

    It's fine for a few standalone scenarios, but I'm very concerned about, effectively, Gregging myself and my players... like for instance I just learned in this thread about the whole reason Magasta's Pool exists, and why rivers flow to the oceans. It happens so often: I read some little factoid and I go "oh shit really?" and then I have to grab GtG or GS and read up several pages of material -- it's like a Wikipedia rabbithole but with cool and obscure mythology. And sure, in the case of rivers flowing to oceans, the players might start by assuming it's because of gravity and other physics, and later I can either "well actually..." or have them meet an NPC that shares that knowledge with them, and it doesn't matter too much, but I'm effectively afraid of painting myself in a corner with another fact that does matter and would be hard to retcon. I don't know what I don't know. I don't know if there are such important facts that I should make sure I know before I venture forth into my first games. Maybe there aren't and I'm just worried for nothing! Who knows?

    I had this fear back 10 years ago when restarting and old game for a few months (came to naught, alas). Back then there were so many possibilities (RQ 1-4, WB&RM, HW, HQ 1 and 2, KoDP and all the Stafford books as well as 20 odd years of computer forums.) that a given myth or story might have 4 or five sometimes very disparate ways of being told. RQ was not a Chaosium thing and a series pf MRQ games came out, Moon Designs was putting out classic old stories. 

    Oh what was a poor GM to do? I decided to not fret and to take advantage of the situation. My game does not have to match canon, my game could become canon (granted, my own canon, but...). As there was no one putting out RQ for the third age who was to say I was wrong. I could decide which truth was real and the confusion could only benefit the game as the players would not longer be omniscient.Even with info flowing again, I think I will try this still: many stories equaling one or two truths. I have yet to try this out in a full campaign, but ask me in 5 years how it went.

    Cheers

    • Like 1

    Dragon Pass Pastimes

    in Glorantha

    Posted

    6 minutes ago, Oracle said:

    I could imagine, that Donandar entertainers use their illusion magic to create effects similar to fireworks on our blue marble without any need for black powder ...

    I would be truly afraid to imagine what a Eurmali could devise in that case.

    • Like 1

    Dragon Pass Pastimes

    in Glorantha

    Posted

    Well it's Canada Day up Canada Way as Stomping Tom Conners use to sing. A truly Canadian national treasure if we ever had one.

    And against Canada Day's growing dark skies the city has splashed a rainbow of colours accentuated by the bangs hisses and sizzles of... fireworks. Accompanied by the acrid smells of..? black powder, cordite? Most definitely my favourite use of gun powder on the Blue Marble. 

    And everyone loves that merrye olde wizard, Gandalf! When one thinks fireworks, often ones mind turns to Bilbo's eleventy-first birthday. But, of course, we are not on the blue marble or in the delightful farms and glens of the shire in middle earth, but luckily we are on our favourite place with the middle world—the green lozenge. So, that leads me to my topic, actually questions. 

    What are fireworks like on the lozenge. I think the Mostal have black powder We know they have muskets, flintlock pistols and cannon. (Yes Shiningbrow... sigh... this is canonnical). But Marvellous fireworks that cause children such wonder some have been known to fall over backwards while watching them soar overhead (why are you looking at me, it wasn't me, honest). 

    So, can we look forward to fireworks on liberation day in Boldhome each year? Are fireworks Mostali, only, if they exist? Can one buy fireworks otherwise, or make fireworks and avcid gobblers and nilmergs (where is that Eurmali spell book, I must have misplaced it in my other cloak)?

    Cheers

    HP in RQG

    in RuneQuest

    Posted · Edited by Bill the barbarian

    49 minutes ago, styopa said:

    Except that model (monster with massive AP and few hp) is brittle as hell...one crit and they die.  (Your solution was what they did in SPH for Bigclub...slapping massive armor on him hid the fact that he was fragile.  That's the exact opposite of the 'big creatures slugging it out for hours then retiring to lick their many wounds' model that we both agree seems to be how the biggest creatures often seem to fight.

    Personal opinon here (aren't most").

    That is the best reason to have these debates. When making home rules listening to the wisdoms of styopa, Jeff, mankcam Kloster, or Joerg (though it could be any who posted here)  can clarify the situation and problems you are addressing and make them shine when you put pen to paper to .put your own spin on them before taking them to the table. 

    Thanx all!

    • Like 1

    Just a reminder there is no OGL for BRP, RQ, or CoC

    in Basic Roleplaying

    Posted

    31 minutes ago, Bifford said:

    I just want to say to Chaosium a little thank you for the awesomeness that is CoC and also for allowing Mongoose to release the setting-free system that is Legend. These are two of my favourite systems to GM or play in. 

     

    I realize I will sound a little naive and probably wrong and as all polly-anniish as it sounds that is how I feel. I hope it's true, it does seem that Chaosium has always been a little bit different in working and playing nicely in the schoolyard of RPG gaming.

    "For a long time I have wished to do a picture of a female warrior, who actually looks like one." RUNEQUEST GLORANTHA art by Ossi Hiekkala

    in RuneQuest

    Posted

    1 minute ago, g33k said:

    Granted, she'd like her shield strapped on, but evidently she judges things as peaceable enough that she isn't likely to need it that quickly.

     

    Sounds about right, put a good warrior in a position of having to fight with only one weapon of a set, one would hope they might be able to parry and  attack with it with some competency. Possibly catching the opponent off guard by the rapidity of being ready,  even if less deadly than if he or she had more time to break out the real and obviously military grade weapons.

    This possibly might be enhanced by having a perfectly good secondary weapon that one is qualified in near at hand (but not in hand:) while the better weapon and more feared is harder to get to. To explain a bit further, I am thinking a lightly armoured warrior with but an axe carrying what is only obviously a weapon but one that is being used for a much more peaceful means is much less threatienig (not non threatening, just less threatening) than one with and axe and a shield near at hand (again not in hand)  (for that matter a spear and a shield) , and not obviously encumbered, might be.

    Seasonal adventures vs pseudo real time

    in RuneQuest

    Posted

    24 minutes ago, PhilHibbs said:

    Not really, and anyway not for long - if you have a category modifier of 20, then you always have a 21% chance to raise your skill. Even at 15%, that 16% chance of skill-up is probably better than characteristic training. Raising a characteristic from 17 to 18 has a 20% chance, and gives you nothing. Likewise to 19 (15%), and to 20 (10%), and then when you get it to 21 (5% chance) you get a +5. Hardly cost-effective. Sure, if you have a 16 then raising it to 17 (25%) is very worthwhile. And 12 to 13 is a no-brainer. 13 to 17? Not sure if that works out more cost-effective than training the skill.

    57 minutes ago, Joerg said:

    This does cause Joerg's argument a problem.

    and is a slight problem I have with RQ G: the re-introductin of break points. I did not even know the expression (at least as relates to RQ ) until RQ G. When GMing RQ 2 pre-internet this was not something I thought of often and with RQ 3 ameliorating the situation I rarely thought about it at all other than as another great RQ feature. 

    Does the "Air Rune" spiral have a direction?

    in Glorantha

    Posted

    9 minutes ago, Joerg said:

    IMO going inward is facing your inner wind, or the No Wind, or it is ascending the Holy Mountain. Going outward is to bring the force of Storm into the world. Both are meaningful.

    as is releasing a violent and volatile wind of any kind (imagination required here, or on second thought maybe it would be better to not) into the world.

    • Like 1

    Seasonal adventures vs pseudo real time

    in RuneQuest

    Posted

    25 minutes ago, Joerg said:

    Basically there comes the point when training your relevant raisable characteristics to the thresholds gives quicker results than training the skills directly. But then, unless he has fallen victim to the Shakes, a Rune Lord with 90% weapon skill is quite unlikely to have reached that with an abysmal DEX - at some point, skill training becomes undistinguishable from characteristic training.

    That's true.

    HP in RQG

    in RuneQuest

    Posted · Edited by Bill the barbarian

    2 hours ago, Joerg said:

    I am not quite sure what you are suggesting. Are you proposing to use HQG for such conflicts inside a RQG game (let's say you found another Faceless Statue and direct it against the Watchdog of Corflu)

     

    Yes, well, not strictly speaking. Apologies for not being clearer. 

    As I have never played HQ it might be a bit presumptuous of me to offer HQ as a solution, No, I was asking your opinion to that question, "Can HQ handle behemoths (not just giant monsters, and I have never felt that any of the monsters mentioned above are just giant monsters, they are too buried in our psyche for that, The sperm whale, giant gorilla, dinosaur and giant squid exist beyond our mundane world and invade our dreams) better than the modern RQ G with its flaws listed in the past day's or so, posts?".

    2 hours ago, Joerg said:

     Yes, the HeroQuest 2 or HQG rules allow to have an opposed roll to decide the outcome of that battle. RQG has the Battle skill, too, and maybe that is good enough for a spectator battle between two kaiju-sized opponents.

    Yes, I was thinking  more mundane than the fight being part of an actual Hero Quest (though odds are at that level I will bet you aren't in Kansas anymore.), Hero Quest opposed combat rules, per se. So would Battle  skill (RQ G) do this adequately rather than turning to HQ for a better way

     

    2 hours ago, Joerg said:

    At one (I think still Hero Wars) games at Tentacles convention run by Greg, our party quested the Plundering of Aron quest, and when it came to the Sivin contest, I announced that my Helamakt warrior would perform the Sivin feat. Rather than rolling any dice, Greg said "that's what Helamakt does", described the outcome briefly, and we went on to the next stage.

     

    I have seen this done by the more advanced GMs in Edmonton. The best was the GM who ran an entire game lying back on an ottoman never opening his eyes. He told us to either roll, or imagine a character we wanted to play from our fave game, and then ran an adventurer for us adjudicating the conflicts in a like manner to which you describe Greg using and letting us either adjudicate our results or roll on our characters by the method of our game of choice. It was great! I played a Kzinti with all advantages and flaws (oh, and they are deeply flawed).

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