pachristian

So here's something to shoot for: You know all those expensive boardgames with miniature pieces? Let's have a high-end remake of White Bear Red Moon and Nomad Gods with 28mm Miniatures for playing pieces! Okay, I'll settle for scenarios books for the skirmish game that would allow you to simulate the battles from WBRM and NG with these miniatures...

One thing I notice about Glorantha as written, vs Glorantha as most of the gamers I know play it, is the moral ambiguity. Argrath is, among other things, a pirate, who sells out the City of Wonders to Harrek for Harrek's assistance. And he's the good guy? Harrek is described as a "save half-mad killing demigod". In "King of Dragon Pass" you encounter clan leaders who are semi-atheist, and clan leaders who will violate Orlanthi law over a grudge. At the battle of Moonbroth, the Praxians recruited a unit of Broo to fight against the Lunars - why? To keep those chaos-lovers out! My point is that in the game we tend push to absolutes: "A good Orlanthi would never work for a Lunar!" Well, I think a good Orlanthi will work where he can get a job. It's amazing how many moral crises are resolved by a steady paycheck. Note that in the Tarsh, Orlanthi, Lunars, and Solar cultists live side by side with minimal friction (I picture them being like the polarized but generally peaceful United States, today).

Thank you for the support Plastic miniatures would be nice. I particularly like the Games Workshop figures where you can mix and match pieces - you have to buy groups of miniatures, but you can customize them pretty well. I understand that there is a high start-up cost for the molds, but after you reach a certain volume they are much cheaper to produce than metal miniatures. I don't know enough about the business to know the best model. Here's one other thing: Let there be praxian beasts early on! I can get all kinds of miniatures - but not sable riders or high llama riders!

This is good news! I've been using Games Workshop Chaos Gor as broo, and Rapier Miniatures still makes Scorpion men, but I'd like to see a decent line of Gloranthan miniatures. Just one request: Not so many "Jar-Eel" and "Gunda" miniatures - more minis that we can use in a normal game!

I think you would be making a simple task unneccsarily complicated. Players are modern people, and are used to see things as maps. We use maps because that is simplest way to communicate the layout of the world. That being said, I have to agree your idea would help put players in the mindset.

All I can say is I hope they really put some thought into sorcery: The issue is not writers coming up with variations, the issue is badly-throught out systems which players, and writers then exploit. No matter how perfunctory sorcery is in the Dragon Pass area, the rules need to be balanced against everything else. "Lhankor Mhy use sorcery"? And somebody was just complaining about Mike Dawson's treatment of sorcery in Strangers in Prax?

I'd rather see that as an additional book. "When in doubt, add simplicity" (Zen saying). One of RQ Classic's great strengths was that is had everything you needed to play, and nothing you did not need.

You can be disabled - by loosing too many of your general hit points - without any single location being out of commission. This represents the cumulative effect of trauma, blood loss, and just good old-fashioned pain.

Only about 3 campaigns over 4-5 years. And I never met anyone who "loved" randomly rolling their character history. I met plenty who loved starting out with an experienced character.

I take it you've never been to Games of Berkeley...

The trick is, that from a mathematical, game-mechanics point of view, some characteristics give you more bang for the buck than others. You can find a copy of my full study somewhere on the Design Mechanism forums. My system works like this: All characacters start with attributes at 'average' (10 or 13 as appropriate). STR, CON, SIZ cost 1 points for +1. INT costs 3 points for +1, DEX, POW, and CHA cost 2 points for +1 (yes, CHA is used for a lot of skills). Characteristics over 18 cost double points (so, 6 points to raise INT from 18 to 19). Max is 21, of course. If the points are distributed proportionately, a character will be in the 95th percentile - in other words, better than all but about 5% of the randomly rolled characters. Given a group of 6 players, each rolling a couple of characters, this reduces the urge to cheat, as it is unlikely a rolled character will be better than the point-distributed character - unless you try to max out INT. There's an old joke about Classic RQ being the only game in the world where every barbarian had an INT of 21; because the benefits of high INT were so disproportionate to the other characteristics. By the way, when training characteristics in my game, STR and CON cost 10 IP, DEX, POW, CHA cost 20 IP, and INT costs 30 IP. SIZ cannot normally be trained. I use a flat scale, instead of a variable one, to discourage min-maxing.

Sell me on this idea. Tell me that you've had it play tested by a new GM, who does not know Glorantha, for a new group of players who do not know Glorantha or the D100 system. THAT is the acid test. If they found it easy to use, and liked it, then we're good. If they had reservations, then we're bad.

Let me get this straight: I am trying to teach a new player to play RQ. The first thing they are asked to do is to make up two stories of life and adventure that they then do not get to play? I'm going to ask a player to spend an hour writing background for their character, in an unfamiliar world and an unfamiliar mythology before they can even start making their character? That's a lot of work and investment to ask a player to start with. I don't think I can sell that to a new player. I need them to be able to jump in, play, and THEN start learning the world and the mythology. Sorry, this just doesn't sound very new-player-friendly. They need to start in media res - in other words, do stuff first, fill in backstory later.

Downloaded it, read it. Very well done. I can use this as a rulebook for my players who refuse to read rulebooks. Things I particularly liked: The fast-use cultural and progression summaries. The clear statements regarding what are "opposed rolls" vs. what are "differential rolls". Simplification of combat styles into a cultural or trained style - that's what everyone I know was using anyway, so that might as well be standard. The "How Combat Works" section - this is an excellent summary, easy to read and very clear. Things I did not like: Point allotment for character creation. I think that different characteristics should have different costs, based on how they are used in the game. This is a "how I prefer to run the game" issue, not an issue with the Imperative book. All and all, you guys do excellent work, and Mythras is my go-to system. Thank you!

That is, anything expect heal himself...

Basically, your character is in so much pain that he can't do anything. I always required the location to go to positive hit points before it could be used again.

I always liked the idea in Tom Dowd's book Burning Bright (Roc books, 1994, a Shadowrun novel). In this story, the magician has an allied spirit, and he explains to his client that the spirit embodies the repressed aspects of his personality. Consequently, mage and ally are always at (basically friendly) odds, as they see things from different points of view. This ties very nicely to the "fetch is of the opposite gender" comments earlier. In a viking game I ran, years ago, the shaman's fetch was a fylgjur - an ancestral guardian spirit. The fetch was present as a spirit before the character became a shaman, but gained full fetch abilities when the character became a shaman. Recently, I was in an RQ game. My character had earned the respect of a griffin's ghost on Stormwalk. When he became a shaman, that ghost became his fetch. So there are many different approaches to making a fetch - and different shamans and shamanic traditions would have different kinds of fetches.

Will your new print distribution partner sell just the map - in poster size - perchance?

Thanks ! I will look for it.

This sounds promising: I'm putting together a Monster Island game - linked to the Dreamlands - where the PC's are 21st century people who when they sleep find that they are trapped in Monster Island - where the colony is an early 20th century colonial outpost - right down to the corrupt governor and "the company". Each time they transition they pick up where they left off. As the game goes on it becomes more and more confusing as to which is real - Monster Island, or the lives they thought were real. And yes, if you die in your 'sleep' you die... Having some modern skill options in Mythras will make it much easier to run this game. Keep the good stuff coming'!* *P.S. what I'm really panting for is Mythic Greece...

i think the cosmic truth is that if it is possible to make money off it, people will find a way to do it.

I've used the new setup; it works great. Although, to be honest, I couldn't really tell the difference from the old set-up. One question: Is there a way to show NPC's changing over time? For example, if I generate a novice Agimori hunting party, and then a few (game) years later, want to have the PC's meet the same Agimori (same names, characteristics and with the original skill choices), but have the NPC's upgraded to Veteran status, is there a way to do that?

Because it gives them a sense of "place". Everyone knows what is expected of the party ranger, or cleric, or thief (pardon me, rogue). When they have to define it all themselves, it creates a sense of vertigo: "What am I? What am I supposed to do? Consequently, you get people who define themselves as "I'm the Orlanthi" "I'm the Found-Child Initiate". Same difference in the end.

Thanks! I particularly liked seeing the Iron Wind Metals rhino and bison. If I can find some sable antelope all will be good. Riders are not a problem; many military miniatures companies sell the horse and rider as two separate pieces. I was not familiar with Irregular miniatures, but it looks some of their 28mm models will make excellent groups of civilians, etc.. Seriously, there are two problems with historical minis. First is that the scale varies widely: For example Eureka's fine miniatures are normally 25mm - set against 28mm scale may not sound like much, but on the tabletop it's pretty dramatic. Second is that they are generally sold in packs of 10+. I don't always need mobs for my PC's to fight, often I need a customizable individual figure to represent a PC.

This may be addressed elsewhere, but is anyone looking at producing miniatures for Glorantha? For humans, I can use Wargames Foundry's Ancients, or Crocodile Games "Heros of Olympus" but these mini's are intended for army use, and take time to convert to make adventuring bands. They also only cover basic units. Do does anyone know (a0 what else is out there and (b) if there is anything coming up?