filbanto

Hi Rust - I'm pretty late to the party here, but I would suggest giving the OpenQuest and RetroQuest games a look. When we started putting together our Viking game I initially picked RetroQuest as it had a skill list very close to what was needed. I added the stuff I wanted, cut the stuff I didn't and had a set of rules to e-mail the group so we were all on the same page. We eventually moved to a system closer to Pendragon for our game, but both OpenQuest and RetroQuest are excellent games to tinker with. Cheers - Mike

Copplestone Castings, The Assault Group, Wargames Foundry

What is Lamentations of the Flame Princess about? It has a very evocative title. From what I've read it is a "DnD retro-clone". Is there anything that really sets it apart from the other ones?

It's listed at Amazon for $24 - not released according to them though:( http://www.amazon.com/Merrie-England-Eleanor-Simon-Phipp/dp/085744042X/ref=wl_it_dp_o_npd?ie=UTF8&coliid=IEXXSZO6PJV88&colid=18DD7RPA0O54S

I am looking forward to this one. Thanks for all your hard work bringing it together!

Update on Chaosium's site: http://www.chaosium.com/article.php?story_id=490

I think their catalog system is a little wonky - maybe they haven't tagged all the items correctly? I could find paper copies of a lot of stuff I wanted under the "Monographs" category, but they only had pdfs (or sometimes nothing) in the BRP section. I did get a hard copy of Aces High for instance.

We're looking at Pre-classical Maya. Several years ago archaeologists discovered a pretty large city in this time period. I think it was Dzibilchaltún, but not sure. Alternately you can look into the Olmec culture which seems to fit the time frame for your ruins. IMHO the Mesoamerican gods outshine Cthulhu and his buddies for pure terror. If you want some scary gods take a look at: - Xipe Totec: "The Flayed God" whose priests dressed up in human skins. - Tlaloc: The rain god who demanded a sacrifice of infants - if they cried it signified the rains would come. I'd be willing to bet old Tlaloc is still getting some love these days. Had an archaeology professor 20-odd years ago who found shrines to Tlaloc that were still in use. Of course the locals denied it - "must have been the people in the next valley"... Tlaloc was worshipped across Mesoamerica and I think they found evidence of him back in pre-classical times as well.

Hey Pardner - Very nice. Looking forward to it. Plan on picking up Aces High during the next sale at Chaosium. Adios - Mike

Cover on this one looks different than the 'monograph' style. Is this a regular release book?

Narl picked up the pre-release copy at Gen Con. I swiped it from him for the past couple of weeks. I've read through the Rune Magic chapter and skimmed the rest of it and it promises to be a very nice supplement.

+1 I like seeing all the posts in one place since most of the games hold intrest for me. Would rather have folks put a tag on their subject line [CoC], [bRP], [OQ] if it is rules-specific.

I shot Dustin an e-mail with my suggestions and he forwarded them on to Charlie who's working on the book. Hadn't seen Chaot's ideas before I blasted off the e-mail. Might be worth the time to chime in yourself.

I'm hoping a year from now:) I'd honestly like them to put this one on hold and retool the book combining Grimoire, Witchcraft and the old Bronze Grimoire into one big tome of magical mayhem. Probably won't happen, but a guy can wish...

Pretty sure Rich wrote them up for Rubble & Ruin. Here's an idea off the top of my head: STR 2D6 CON 2D6 (+1 2 for resisting poison/disease and other nastiness) SIZ 2D6 POW 2D6 DEX 2D6+10 Bite attack for 1d6 damage High climb, hide, sneak and swim skills 60%+

This is excellent news. I felt Clockwork & Chivalry was shoehorned it into MRQ2's system. Taking the whole system "in house" gives you a lot more flexibility. I'll likely sell my current copy off and pick up the new version when it goes on sale.

Bolded for emphasis. This gets at the crux of what I ineptly was trying to describe above. Take the Hundred Years War for example. Archers typically were armored in fairly tight-fitting jacks with open helms. Kit the same archer out in a full harness and close helm. Would he hit what he was aiming at as often? What about our backflipping count? The guy can do backflips in and out of his armor. The question is does he find it more difficult to do them in the armor? I guess you could argue either way... If he only does backflips while wearing a full harness his balance might be thrown off when he was out of armor. I prefer an abstraction - give a small penalty to characters in heavy armor. Your mileage may vary - we all interpret the world a little differently:) I agree you cannot penalize armor wearers in the game too much. MRQ1 made armor practically useless with the high penalties imposed.

I sure don't claim to be an archer, but I found it a lot easier to shoot a bow after I took my heavy jacket off when I was messing around last fall. Maybe I should only apply a penalty for wearing padded armor? I guess I was thinking about things like the string catching on your forearm or trying to shoot across a pigeon-breast cuirass. Agree with the crossbow comment.

I apply the penalty to Dodge. I also think it would be applicable to missile weapons like bows or slings. I don't like the idea of it reducing melee combat skills or brawl/grapple. Slowing you down a bit (as is argued in the Strike Ranks thread) sounds ok though.

I'll pile on to the "I use them when I don't use hit locations" crowd. I'd like less variability in full suits of armor. Say 1d6+6 for plate with helm rather than 1d10+2. Bigger ranges for 'half armor' (say 1d10-1 for half plate). You can use random armor with hit locations. Example: a mail byrnie only covers the wearer down to the elbows. Random armor could represent this kind of covrage. I personally wouldn't do it. For Narl's Viking's game we've lowered AP on the arms for wearing a byrnie. You could also use a die mechanic such as "even numbered hits strike the unarmored portion of the arm".

I'm glad it will be released again. I think this is the only game book I haven't picked up from you:) I was holding out for a BRP version after you announced Merrie England was going that route. Please consider dual stats for BRP or a pdf add-on for them when you are closer to a re-release.

Rust has more eloquently put what I am getting at. The Pan Tang Warrior style in Elric had Axe, Sword and Spear as weapons. If my character used sword from day one and gained +30% experience I'd figure to be a little worse with the Axe just because I never used it.

I ignore this stuff unless it is an important element in the game. Example: when Matt and I wrote the Sands of Timehttp://www.stormbringerrpg.com/?page_id=86 for Stormbringer we provided some rules for water consumption in the Sighing Desert because making the characters a little thirsty and desperate helped push them towards the adventure.

Combat Actions I'd suggest basing them on the 'power level' of the game. Normal = 2, Heroic = 3, etc. Combat Styles I have a love/hate relationship with these. I love the idea that a warrior would have a decent level of proficiency with a lot of different weapons. I hate the idea that a character who always fought with a sword could pick up an axe and do equally well. Flashing Blades handles this conundrum pretty well. Every character has a base proficiency in a style of dueling and then specializes in a particular weapon in that style.

KingSkin - I don't think the weapon ranges/length rules play well with strike ranks. I ditched strike ranks long ago precisely for the trouble you're having. Currently I am using weapon length and Dex ranks. I've come up with some tweaks to Dex rank for slower weapons. Example: a Dane axe is a Long weapon, but I imagine it'd be slow so users have -2 Dex rank when using it. Note that Dex rank is only for determining when characters strike in combat. If they want to do something else they'd use basic Dex. If you want a copy of my working notes feel free to shoot me a private message with your e-mail address. I can send you the excel file. Mike