sdavies2720

The old edition is 80 pages. The new edition is 210 pages. 10 of these are the Alephtar medieval christianity magic system, which you already have if you own Crusaders of the Amber Coast. The rest is new. I'll leave the maths to you.

Because this is for BRP and is in print?

Expanded rules for Judaism and Islam.

Extensive Gazetteer of Christendom.

Seven scenarios in a mini-campaign.

Extensive rules on demons with demonic powers and demonic nobility.

New Bestiary.

Descriptions of Military Orders.

New backgrounds (Hiberno Norse, can't remember the others).

Sample ships.

Descriptions of the major Trading Leagues.

Magical Science (Although Paolo insisted that these be Knowledge skills not Science skills - I so wanted the Science (Astrology) skill to be included).

Expanded Medieval Christianity rules (although I forgot to include reliquaries).

That might be it, though.

Steve

I apologize for this, but I've lost track of what's different between this edition and the previous one. Opportunity for shameless plug: Why should we buy this if we have the previous one?

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

Steve

I'm late to the party, but converted (actually, and philosophically) to the current RQ system of modifiers as two characteristics, designated by skill. It works well:

* My players 'get' it. I don't have to answer endless questions about how to calculate stuff.

* When there is a characteristic reduction, it's really easy for its duration to say something like, "Ok, your DEX is reduced by 3, all DEX-based skills are -3% for the duration." Yeah, it's an in-game modifier to keep track of, but it's an in-game effect as well.\

* Racial, societal and other character-build issues are easily handled with a bonus to the skill at character creation. You're a lumberjack, you get +20% with Axes. You're an egyptian, you get +20% on Lore(Religion). Really simple.

I totally miss the negative bonuses: I loved in the original RQ that to maximize your sneakiness, you wanted a small SIZ and low POW. My players tolerated it, they never loved it.

My houserule (which I abandoned when adopting MRQ) was to add 1% to a category bonus whenever a skill within that category crossed a 10% boundary (10%, 20%, 30%, etc). So characters got better in all skills in a category as they advanced in any skill in the category. So I was pretty far along the rule complexity curve. My players liked it (something for nothing) but it was just too much work.

These days, simple is trumping realistic.

Steve

Clockwork and Chivalry has a trait called "Righteousness" which is calculated from Stats (like skills) and with a bonus depending on which faction a character belongs to. It has a couple of effects in play:

* Players and NPCs trying to influence each other can do an opposed Righteousness check to see who wins out

* Players can add 1/10 their Righteousness to skills when applicable

* The GM can call for a Righteousness check from a player if they are acting in a way contrary to their faction beliefs

Most of my players are liking Righteousness, and don't mind that their free will can occasionally be subverted by the GM Righteousness check. For my playing group, the mechanic has done what it's supposed to: Bring faction allegiance front and center in the campaign.

Steve

I don't have them both right in front of me, but if memory serves, there is little difference between them. I know that when I got my SJ copy, after looking through everything I just filed my older one away.

You should know that although AT is often held up as a great resource for realistic magic, it's not really a workable system as written. There's a lot of arm waving about what goes into a spell but at the end of the day, the spell is worked out in discussion between the player and the GM.

Steve

I don't know if this is what you're looking for: On DriveThruRPG there are two versions of hawkmoon. I can't tell who the authors are, but maybe one of those is what you're looking for. They are listed under Mongoose, which I think is a result of a deal between Chaosium and Mongoose based on Mongoose's Moorcock license.

Stve

Have you checked amazon. Was in a bidding war after I found it on ebay, then wifey found it on amazon. There were three other copies and got it cheaper by ten dollars iirc, lol. We kept bidding it up on the guy after he jumped the price, lol, sorry.

Looks like a couple are available at about $15:

http://www.amazon.com/Worlds-Beyond-Here-Anything-Frank-Shewmake/dp/B000KFGX92/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1313703552&sr=1-1

I doff my hat to your masterful turn of phrase. Shakie could not have verbed that noun better.

I think it should have been "...de-Moorcock and re-bookize NOW."

It rarely adds to the fun of the game, so we usually skip it. When it's an important element of the game, the gm can usually remind the party when supplies are half-gone, 3/4 gone, etc.

As a player, that tracking is annoying at best, and sometimes much worse (we had a StarWars game where we couldn't get off a planet because the GM miscalculated how much fuel different maneuvers took -- and it was only an issue because he was making us track our fuel usage in detail).

Steve

I would consider using it from both directions.

The GM makes the res roll if the effects of the poison wont be immediately noticed, eg. somebody slipped a halucinogen into the players drink.

The Player makes the roll if the effects are obvious, eg. just been bitten by a snake.

In some circumstances it can be important to know which is passive or active, but a lot of the time it doesn't really matter. So long as the right person rolls against the right number to resist.

That's what I do: Player makes the roll unless it's a hidden effect. If it's Player versus Player, I let the defender (resister) roll.

Steve

Wow,

This is awesome and (to me) unexpected news. I've been quietly moping about the future of RuneQuest -- I've switched to MRQII and like its overall balance and style, but I feel that it can get even better.

You guys are definitely the all-star team I'd have picked to push it forward.

Thank you, thank you for taking this on!

Steve

I think that guy has a point, RPGs are dangerous and evil, but his way of exposing them is soo 80s. Now, this guy doesn't pull any punches:

http://www.ilmatar.net/~np/gameofsatan/

Maybe I'd be a little more worried about this if they could spell, use correct grammar... Heck, even the prurient pictures (edited of course with a little black strip over the naughty bits) shout out that this is a troll site.

[Edit:] we can probably help our own cause by not putting live links to these sites -- it only supports them with some of our SEO/Google-fu

Steve

Oo..oh! I could write BRP Sloths! My campaign is in every-other-month rotation at our game store, so 6-8ish sessions a year:

"Help, help the goblins are raiding the grain shed...Right, we're heroes, we're on it...help help...yep, we're saving the world...hurry!...yep, just got out of the tavern...quick, over here...dang, I forgot my axe-hold on...please!...ok, I'm ready...please hurry...sorry, I've forgotten what we're doing?...saving the village from goblins...right, lead on...oh dang, the goblins have left...

how come we never get to fight in this campaign?"

Steve

... The correct (and really obvious) solution would be to use MRQ and _ALL_ of its rules for combat.

"Correct" meaning, "If you want to move from the BRP-tiered success system to a 10%-tiered success system, the correct..." Right?

And if you are ok with the BRP-tiered system, the correct solution is to stick with that.

Sorry, but I don't want to see this wander further afield into one-true-wayism accusations and counters

Steve

Thanks. They are getting shorter, my target is now 500 words, so it should get easier to get through them.

I'm totally open to suggestions (topic, style, errors, whatever -- I'm thickskinned).

Steve

The next post of the series is up at http://www.profantasy.com/rpgmaps/?p=559

We're starting to map districts of the city. This one is mostly theory, and the next will be technique.

Steve

I got the email and was less than thrilled. I was banking on Merrie England and Mythic Iceland to hit the next sale.

LOL, Chaosium always does this -- a sale before some anticipated stuff comes out. I say that with respect: It's the right time to have sale -- capture some dollars that are languishing, and still get top dollar for the new release.

I'm delighted by the news -- there were a couple of titles that I've been waiting to pick up.

Steve

They would of course say so and offer an immediate and full refund ...

As they've done in the past when they published an editorially snarfed up product *cough* Necromatic Arts *cough* Arms & Equipment, then put everything on remainder sale as quickly as possible...

So....

When do we think "Wayfarer" will be coming out under that name?

I'll happily buy it, if they've resisted the urge to jigger-about with Loz & Pete's rules.

Mongoose has said it will be the beginning of next year. It looks like they can continue to sell what they have through the end of this year, and they've confirmed that the PDFs will be available through November (DriveThruRPG has them on sale for the next couple of weeks, and maybe longer). I don't know how long it will take for Mongoose to sell out the printed versions of the rules.

Steve

At people who turn up to a BRP game not willing to multiply by 5.

Seriously, why is this even an issue? If you have a bunch of players for whom the rules are too complicated, run a different game. Or use Stormbringer or MRQ2. BRP is by far one of the easiest and most intuitive "crunchy" systems out there. If people can't or won't handle it, why try to force a square peg into a round hole? If players don't like the game I'm running, I run a different game or find different players (depending on whether I prefer the players or the system!)....

I've stayed out of this debate because I think it's silly: Do what you need to have fun.

And we've move a long way from the original post

Stafford and Mongoose split today

Steve

/agree with seneschal 100%.

Me too, especially when you mix in a couple of beers consumed while the Magic players clear out!

Merrie England: Age of Eleanor was for MRQ and was discontinued after Mongoose pulled the RQ Licence.

Merrie England: Age of Chivalry is the new version for BRP and is probably 2-3 times as long with a lot more material.

My original intention was to produce several books roughly the same size as Age of Eleanor, but because of the differences between the licences, I combined much of the work into one volume.

(Gah! hit the "Reply to Thread" button when I wanted the "Post Quick Reply" button instead...)

I was wondering about this as well. Is the Age of Eleanor material included in the upcoming Age of Chivalry release? Or is AoC complementary to AoE?

Steve

I also love the rules for Factions and Righteousness -- they give a great mechanism to nudge players & characters into the conflicts of the times without being too overbearing.

Steve

Well, despite all that, I bet that Chaosium would replace it if you asked. At worst they would say no, but I can't image they would.

My copy is prefect -- no dented corners yet either

Steve