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BWP

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  1. Well, that may be true if by "outside of the USA" you mean "Europe". Plenty of 3-ring (and 2-ring, and 4-ring) binders in this part of the world. It becomes a moot point if you use sheet protectors (which you want to do, because ring binders inevitably destroy pages inserted into them over time). However, I know that it is difficult to find sheet protectors in Europe that will fit US Letter pages. (Again, that's not a problem in these parts; our sheet protectors work for A4 and US Letter equally.) The best binders are the "Ergo" brand (from Sweden originally, I believe) which although expensive are virtually indestructible, and are designed in such a way that the inserted pages (in sheet protectors) turn like the pages of a bound book. My single-volume RQ3 Deluxe rulebook now lives in an Ergo binder after the original binding disintegrated (about 30 seconds after the book was first opened, as it's wont). I think perhaps the simplest solution is for Chaosium to always format the cults (no matter in what product they're presented in) as if they were stand-alone sheets (even though that may result in a lot of blank pages etc., depending on how much text is in the cult write-up). (Of course that's what artwork is for ....) That way the individual pages can be printed from the PDF edition and inserted into a stand-alone binder, ordered in whatever way makes sense for the individual. Just as useful would be to do the same for the creatures. I'd rather see an alphabetical organisation for those than the order used in the Bestiary, and of course more and more critters will be published over time ....
  2. Well, actually, they didn't. Judges' Guild products came in three flavours: completely generic, no game-specific information at all; game-specific, information and stats included for a specific game system (for most of their products, that meant original D&D); and "generic game system", their own invention, which provided stats for NPCs etc. that theoretically could be adapted to any game system, but in practice (since it involved levels and classes) meant a D&D derivative. I'm not aware of any JG product that included stats for more than a single game system. Of course such products did exist, but other companies published them, not JG. I have to admit that The Halls of the Dwarven Kings is one I had completely blanked on. I must have seen it advertised in the pages of White Dwarf, but I don't remember ever seeing it on a local game store shelf, and if I had I probably would have dismissed it as a D&D supplement that I didn't need to own.
  3. What supplement are you referring to? AFAIK there was no Judges' Guild RQ2 product detailing dwarves (or any other RQ race). Nor can I think of any supplement from any publisher detailing dwarves in RQ2, other than the articles in Different Worlds. I vaguely recall that Mayfair Games did a "Dwarves" book, but that was for AD&D, although it may well have been easily adapted for "Gateway" RQ settings.
  4. One way of implementing a "death spiral" in BRP games (not necessarily the "best" way, or even necessarily a "desirable" way) would be to compare damage-done (i.e., damage that has penetrated armour) vs. current-HP (in that location if using a hit location system, or total HP if not) on the Resistance table. Success indicates a "special effect", varying depending on the location, perhaps varying depending on the weapon type being used (a lot of GM discretion would be required here). So success in hitting the head = stunned or even unconscious, success in a limb = temporary paralysis, and so on. Different types of creatures may have particular immunities to certain effects, or even certain vulnerabilities. (E.G., arthropods would generally ignore limb damage other than movement penalties if legs are lost, etc.) Every point of damage then matters more than just being that much closer to total HP failure ... keep bashing on that troll's noggin and he may just keel over, or keep smacking him in the arm and you may force him to drop his maul, even if you haven't done enough damage in either case to cause "serious" injury. I also particularly liked the knockback rules from RQ3 for showing ongoing "combat effects" in a fight without necessarily representing accumulating damage. A lucky strike still might not take down your opponent if he's tough, but driving him back a meter or two will almost certainly disrupt his attacks, possibly make him fall over, etc.
  5. That's lovely, thank you. Why is this not in a downloadable format, and why isn't there a link to it from the RQG product page? (I understand that this isn't necessarily Jeff's job, but someone at Chaosium needs to make sure it's done.)
  6. And? If you volunteer for the job, you do the job. I have also spent many, many hours of proof-reading for games (mostly Advanced Squad Leader, a rules document not known for its light and breezy style). You don't do it because you want praise or rewards, but because you want the product to be as good as it can be. Please know that I'm not one of those individuals who idly speculate about a task that I have no familiarity with and that I'm too lazy to ever do myself. No, that is simply not true. Perfection (in proofing) is difficult to attain, but (a) it's not absolutely unattainable, and (b) it is certainly possible to do much better than the RQG products have so far demonstrated. Much better. The truth is in the evidence: the proofing of the RQG products has (so far) been crap; other similarly complex documents in the gaming environment are (usually) done much better; therefore the RQG products can be done better. It requires some skill in reading, some understanding of how the game actually works, and plenty of dedication, plus of course the desire to do it. Lots of people have some of these qualifications, relatively few have all of them; you make up for it by making sure you attract as many people as you can manage. I haven't participated in the RQG proofing process, so I can't identify specifically where the problem is, but there very clearly is a problem, and Chaosium needs to fix it.
  7. The RQ rules (any iteration) aren't especially complex. They're not especially simple, either, but people will gravitate to rules systems that suit them, and gravitate away from rules systems that don't suit them. The complexity (or lack of it) is a non-issue, IMO. What is an issue is the terrible editing in the finished documents. That's where Chaosium needs to focus their attention on for future products. No published product is perfect, and nit-pickers can find nits to pick anywhere. It is however possible to publish a rules document that does not contain gross contradictions within its own text, but that requires some editorial diligence not yet in evidence. (I'd start by finding some new proof-readers, because whoever is doing the job currently are collectively letting the team down.) Willingness to publish errata as required is always a good sign. Why are the "RuneFix" documents not downloadable from the Chaosium website? There should be a link to it right on the product page. (The product page for the RQG rules is excellent, full of lots of information. Too bad if what you're looking for is errata!)
  8. BWP

    Sorcery Questions

    I can't agree with that.If the caster can nod in response to a query, then he has awareness that a query has been directed at him and can spare enough mental faculties to respond to it. That's more than enough "spare" awareness in order to be able to move in a slow, controlled manner. (Consider real human beings totally engrossed in their mobile phones moving from place to place every day.) As a general rule of thumb I would prohibit anything other than slow movement, but would certainly allow it on a mount, in conjunction with a ride roll. For a sorcerer on foot, if the terrain is at all cluttered or difficult, I'd probably ask for a DEX roll. I wouldn't allow normal (or faster) movement. If the mode of transport requires that the person actively hang on to something to avoid falling off/falling over, that would probably be enough to prohibit sorcery as the necessary hand movements would be impacted. Similarly, if the sorcerer needs to perform some sort of ritualistic dance or other complicated movement as part of casting the spell, then that also is going to ko most forms of mounted movement (but not necessarily on foot). And of course some specific spells or rituals might absolutely require that the sorcerer be stationary (e.g., something being cast within a mystic circle). I agree that you should not "speed up" sorcery in ways other than those specifically allowed for in the rules. A good sorcerer plans ahead and has already cast the spells he thinks he will need.
  9. Easy to do when the rules you are "writing" are simply copied from a less-refined original set and concepts from later, more refined sets of rules are ignored. (Not that later rules are always better, but usually they are better explained, at least.) RQ veterans will chop and change and house-rule everything to suit the way they've always played, but I don't envy people with no experience with the system at all, trying to make sense of this first draft. I'm sure that the (hypothetical, but inevitable) RQG, 2nd edition will iron most of these bugs out.
  10. > we have a rq3 monster generator in excel Would you care to share?
  11. I don't think you have much experience with different role-playing games. I would say that "virtually none" of the RPG rules I've ever read over 40+ years include any sort of "system" for balancing encounters. (Many include advice or suggestions, though.) Name 3, and only one of them is allowed to be based on the D20 rules. You've proven that you can make broad, sweeping statements, now can we see something resembling a fact? You're correct that any set of game rules should discuss the idea of making sure the game is "balanced", but with any of the games in the BRP system, it's more about pointing out what makes the game unbalanced than providing a mechanistic method of "ensuring" balance -- as if that would even be possible. As pointed out above, the main issue is numbers. RQ (all versions) has always demonstrated that numbers will win a fight, except when the outnumbered side is amazingly better than the other side. If you have 12 "ordinary" opponents vs. 6 "decent" player characters, there's quite a good chance that some of those PCs will go down, possibly for good. Whichever side rolls the dice most often is the side most likely to be getting critical hits and special hits, and a trollkin armed with a spear is going to just flat-out ruin your day when (not if) he impales you. It doesn't matter that if it was a one-on-one battle you would almost certainly cream him, the point is how often are you going to fight puny guys one-on-one? The best balancing system I've ever found in playing any version of RQ is experience -- player experience. You quickly learn to judge what fights you'll "probably" win and avoid the ones you'll "probably" lose. The GM learns what encounters are "fair" to put in the way of the PCs and what ones aren't. [There's also always been an element of demonstrating Glorantha's "this is the way the world is, sucks to be you" in various Chaosium supplements. The Eternal Battle as a random encounter? Allosaurs in Balazar? In effect, sometimes Chaosium is positively encouraging the viewpoint the world exists not as a challenge, but as an insurmountable obstacle.]
  12. I think your confusion is in the meaning of the word "player". (Man, it sucks when you have to explain the joke!) I absolutely 100% guarantee you that no players I know, nor indeed any player that I don't know, can cast a spell (even if they personally believe otherwise). At least, not one that will actually yield a magical effect. However, player characters in many, many games cast magical spells on a regular basis. Certainly NPCs in those games can be expected to do that too. Not sure why that would need to be shouted out as a principle. Magical or non-magical setting, no players are casting spells. To bring this back somewhat on topic, I'd point out that if the NPCs are smarter than the players on a regular basis, you may need to deliberately "dumb them down", otherwise the players may end up feeling frustrated and bored. There's not a lot of game fun in having the party agree that yes, the enemy's master plan is fool-proof, and I guess he's going to win, so we may as well just go home.
  13. Why would a "city dwelling butcher" even know about Peaceful Cut, let alone make any use of it? That's something that those savages out in the wild places do. Most city dwelling butchers are primarily concerned about maximising the meat (and other by-products) yield from any given carcass. Which is what the Butchery skill is all about.
  14. OK, my players can't cast spells, so no NPCs can cast spells. Got it. Although ... kind of gives the PCs a bit of an advantage, doesn't it? Also kind of nerfs those NPCs planning to cast a major ritual to wreak destruction and havoc, since the players (and even the PCs) aren't (usually) able to do that.
  15. Where would you derive that understanding from? You might well be correct, but I don't know that there's ever been a poll taken? We don't generally bother with setting up the miniatures if the combat positioning is very "obvious", but any time the positioning or maneuvering gets even slightly complex, then we turn to the miniatures. (This is true for any game we play, not just RQ.) Positioning was is certainly important in RQ3, with a bunch of important modifiers that can apply. I'm shocked -- shocked, I tell you -- that little if any of that is to be found in RQG. It's increasingly clear to me that any time there's a question of mechanics (as opposed to character background info, world building, etc.) -- or, if you like, "hard" vs. "soft", or "how" vs. "why" -- then the RQG rules should at best only be used as suggestions. Or, to put it another way ... if you think a situation deserves some sort of special penalty or bonus, don't look for an answer in the RQG rules -- just go with whatever "feels right" to the people at the table. As long as you do it in a consistent fashion, there should be no cause for complaint.
  16. I don't think that's the reason why a lot of things are "a little muddled" in the new rules, but that's probably a separate discussion .... IMO successful RPG systems are a synthesis of a few things, primarily cool roleplaying ideas and well-executed mechanics. Consider, for example, the long-term success of the older D&D systems. Prior to 3.0 the game had (mostly) dreadful mechanics, largely because the original rules were written by people who didn't know how to write good game rules. However, the game was positively seething with ideas and I think the attraction of that overcame the rules difficulties for most people. It was a relative minority who responded by coming up with alternate rules to express those same ideas (hence the original RQ and of course many other game systems). Game balance only became an issue as people became accustomed to the older rules sets and began to realise that certain game choices were much better than other game choices ("better" in the sense of "my character can grow more powerful/influential/etc."). This in turn led to greater analysis of game systems and resulted in the various new systems and editions. Personally, I don't think that game balance is that important if you consider that the role-playing group is a combined synthesis of diverse elements trying to make their way through the game world, achieving some collective goal -- so long as every member of the group has the opportunity to meaningfully contribute (which is not the same as "contributing equally"). On the other hand if your role-playing group is a collection of individuals who happen to work together for mutual convenience, then "balance" becomes a lot more important, as each individual requires the same opportunities for advancement. I like that RQG has a diversity of cults, because that's how a real world should work. Ideally players will choose their cults for role-playing reasons, and the characters will develop accordingly. The only real requirement is that the cult exists "logically" in its environment, by which I mean, if the cult has "puny" magic, what stops it from being wiped out (or fading into obscurity)? It's only logical that players will mostly gravitate to "powerful" cults because players mostly want their characters to be significant in the game world. Now, if you have a situation where you have a supposedly "powerful" cult that can't attract any interest from players because it's very difficult to get anywhere with it, then you may have a problem with the way the cult is designed.
  17. Will the new books include appropriate character generation rules (family history, etc.)?
  18. BWP

    nuYGMV

    My specific concern is that it I don't want to waste time and money on a product that won't advance my knowledge of Glorantha. (That's why I'm not paying attention to any of the Mongoose products.) It sounds like HW and then HQ1 jumped onto a different set of tracks from what had been previously "known". It also sounds like the current HQ:G products are back on the right track? I'm still not completely clear how to identify a "good" HQ product from a "bad" one. If the "safest" answer is just to avoid HW/HQ completely, then I'm OK with that.
  19. BWP

    nuYGMV

    I'm still trying to work out why HQ and RQG have different Glorantha canon. Different game systems, sure. But different background info? I had been planning to buy a bunch of the old HQ supplements (I already have a few of the even older HW books) but now I'm thinking that there doesn't seem any point. (I have absolutely no intention of actually playing HQ.)
  20. I'm not sure what the point of your post was. I was indicating my disagreement with this new "accepted wisdom". I neither needed nor wanted a change here. Of course you're free to disagree with my disagreement, but I wasn't talking about your Glorantha, was I? Everything you wrote here just reinforces my opinion that the whole "morokanths are vegetarian" concept is incredibly dull. I don't want my Glorantha to be a dull place.
  21. Or, they're the same devious carnivores that they always were, because that's considerably more interesting.
  22. I think most people would prefer that a bestiary provide an illustration for every entry in the book. I get why that is not always possible or practical. However, I don't see that complaining about people who are praising the book is very helpful? You don't see a lot of people wishing that Dave Dobyski could have done more illustrations for Elder Secrets, etc.
  23. There's nothing wrong with that if the subject matter requires it. WW2 combat was a complex thing; I'm immediately suspicious of rules that make no effort to reflect that complexity. Of course I know that there are gamers who like their RPG combats "crunchy", and those who want it as simple as possible so that they can move on to the "good stuff" quickly. I came to role-playing via wargames, and my tastes reflect that. RQ, regardless of edition, was always a game system that celebrated detail and tended to attract like-minded players. Yes and no. From the miniatures perspective, yes, and too many people thought that miniatures were required and thus avoided the Deluxe sets. As an alternative to the regular ASL boards, and to simulate particularly complex close actions that would get very unwieldy on the regular boards, DASL has remained popular with many players, just using the regular counterset and not a miniature in sight. Just this year four brand-new boards were released. @AtgxtgThe "Deluxe" appellation was always referring to the "presentation", not a whole different set of rules. Avalon Hill had nothing to do with the writing of RQ3, that was all Chaosium. The point of the deal between the companies (as I understand it) is that Chaosium got better distribution of their games, and were relieved of many of the burdens of publishing -- and thus could concentrate on producing content. Avalon Hill got an entry into the (perceived to be) lucrative RPG market that already had a known name value, and they didn't need to dedicate much in the way of staff time to produce. They did dictate some unfortunate choices -- the confusing array of available versions, for instance -- but otherwise had no say over the content. In a sense, it worked -- at least to a small extent. I know wargamers who saw all the RQ3 advertisements in the pages of the General magazine, and thought it would be worth checking out, even though they had limited (at best) interest in role-playing games prior to that point. Few, if any, of these people became full-fledged converts, but they represented sales that Chaosium would never have seen otherwise. I don't think these guys objected to the rules (or the settings), they just weren't into it as a long-term activity.
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