Malc

The PDF of The Smoking Ruin is available now on Choasium’s website. Buy it before release, and Chaosium will send you a voucher for the price of the PDF as a discount when you buy the dead-tree edition (although you do have to buy both from Chaosium).

Games Workshop also printed the three SoloQuest books. As far as I can tell, they’re identical to the Chaosium printings, but with a GW logo on the back, opposite the Chaosium logo.

Hi All,

Bizarrely, I think I’m gaming more as a result of Covid-19.  Happens that I backed the Fantasy Grounds Unity Kickstarter, with the Call of Cthulhu essentials pack.  So, to learn the system until I can get my RuneQuest rule set working, I’ve been using that and discord to run CoC adventures for some of my normal players, and also a demo for some cow-orders.

It’s quite a nice way to run adventures, provided your using a supported system. Otherwise I’d probably say that you’ll get as much out of the free remote tabletop systems, for quite a bit less money.  That said, there are a lot of systems which are user-supported for free, even if the support is of varying quality.

— 

Malc

Defence was pretty simple. It’s a flat penalty on to hit rolls made against the character. So 50% attack vs 10% defence give a 40% chance to hit. If you get attacked my multiple opponents, you split the defence between the attacks as you see fit.  

Mostly the values are pretty small, and in that case you can ignore defence. A high defence would translate into skill in dodge (I’d probably give dodge at something like defence x 2).

I'd suggest putting them on eBay.  Most of those books sound like things that have now become collectible, and you might be surprised at how much they go for.  Depends on edition, condition etc.  Searching for sold items should give you an idea of what things sell for.

Amazon is also an option.  Prices are generally higher, but things sell much more slowly in general.

30 minutes ago, DreadDomain said:

Haven't played RoS for years but the passage I emphasized is part of my issue. We have heard/read people describe the RQ combat system as visceral and/or immersive. The current system as written doesn't feel like it at all. I appreciate it does for many others but personally, I cannot immersed or feel viscerally engaged in a combat when a full 12 seconds of combat abstracted in one single roll.

Again, it doesn't mean that it is wrong or bad, simply that it doesn't work for me.

I think that the "visceral" in RQ combat is a direct comparison to D&D (specifically AD&D, given the time it was first quoted).  When any RQ combat could get you killed or maimed (even if it's a vanishingly small chance), that's a big difference to most AD&D combats (most, not all), where that sense of danger just isn't present - it always felt like most fights just happened to wear down resources, but you had no real sense of danger to your character.  That sense of danger and the tension it brings, is what (I think) is important to me in a combat system.

My experience has been that the "right" level of abstraction in combat is a moving target that differs between groups, and sometimes between different games with the same group.  The TRoS combat system is the one I've used that feels closest to "simulating" a sword fight, probably because it's loaded with tactical decisions that make player skill almost as important as character skill.  While systems like HeroQuest and Fate, while excellent, are a little too abstract for my taste.  Because of the danger I mentioned, the RQ combat system, while not perfect, is "good enough" for me to enjoy it, while being relatively straightforward even for a group who've never played RQ before.

3 hours ago, Atgxtg said:

It really boils down to how familiar people (especially the GM) are with the rules, and what the emphasis is during play.

This is exactly why one of my fixed rules for GMing is that if you don’t know a rule, and can’t find it inside a minute or so, then make a ruling.  My experience is that an incorrect ruling derails a game a lot less than waiting 10 minutes while the GM pages through the rules.

Also, if anyone wants to see how smooth detailed blow-by-blow combat can be, I’d recommend a look at The Riddle of Steel RPG.  It’s not perfect, but it does have an even more visceral feel than RuneQuest.  Also several things in common, such as creatures that don’t bleed or suffer shock (like skeletons and zombies) being a lot more dangerous than they seem...

50 minutes ago, PhilHibbs said:

Marco Polo has been docked in Algeciras, in the Bay of Gibraltar, for... 15 hours. Was it supposed to do that? Has the ritual failed, are our books scattered on the rocks?

According to the schedule, it leaves just after midnight, and arrives in Southampton in the small hours of Sunday morning.  So books soon!  Well, after customs and transport to the warehouse...

rolls patience check.  Fails miserably!

4 hours ago, caden_varn said:

I like the look of Mythras, so I'll probably try to pick that up if I can find it in the UK in physical form, and look at the Constantinople book, but my setting is exploration of ther New World, so probably not ideal for this game, but for spoudns good for doing an earlier mediaeval game which I expect to get round to at some point.

For Mythras print books in the UK, go to http://www.aeongamespublishing.co.uk/.  I’ve used them a couple of times, and they seem a pretty good bunch.  If you want PDF-only products (or just PDFs), then you’ll need to go to The Design Mechanism’s website.

if you buy a print book from Aeon Games, then you get the PDF free.  Which is nice.

They’re available right now from Q Workshop’s site.

Having spent far too much of my life looking for OOP RPG stuff on eBay or elsewhere, my experience suggests that people will spend up to about £150 ($200) for a rare item to complete a collection.  Most of the RQ2 boxed sets I see on eBay tend to be around that price, many sold by people who make a living selling this stuff. You can get stuff a lot cheaper sometimes, but be prepared to be very patient.

However, for sheer absurdity, you can’t beat the Amazon automatic pricing systems. Take a look at this little gem: https://www.amazon.co.uk/RuneQuest-Essentials-Pete-Nash/dp/0987725963/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1532640261&sr=8-1&keywords=RuneQuest+essentials

Off the top of my head, I’d probably rule it as a separate skill “shield combat”. Like martial arts, it’s a limit on your attack skill - if you hit but roll over the shield combat skill, the attack is too fast to penetrate the shield. 

I’d also probably rule that since attacks intended to penetrate shields have to be slow, you don’t get a damage bonus when using the skill, or maybe the bonus is halved.

If you bought the PDF from Chaosium, you could try the ePub (or mobi or prc, depending on what device you use) version of the book?  It’s much lighter on images.

Using PDF expert on a Mac, I ran into the following problems:

• Dodge skill is pinned to DEX x 2, and can't be changed
• Jump skill is pinned to DEX x 3 and can't be changed
• Skill modifiers aren't added to the displayed skill values, which is probably not the best use for ease of use
• Free INT doesn't seem to update, and can't be edited
• The two Spirit Combat values on the sheet (under Spirit Combat and Magic Skills) aren't linked, and can be different

Aside from those issues though, this is a really good start!

3 hours ago, Atgxtg said:

So anyway, to cease the threadjacking for which I am responsible...

Does RQG use RQ2 or RQ3 armor values?

Looks like RQ2 armour, for the most part. Plate is 6AP. 

Quote

Do you an a bonus based on INT to experience rolls or the category modifiers?

Experience rolls are RQ3 style, roll d100 + category modifier, try to get over the skill value (or 100, if lower).

Quote

Do animals have an INT score, fixed otherwise (guess we have to wait for the bestiary)?

Horses in the Bestiary preview don’t have an INT score listed, so I guess not.

Cheers

Hi All,

A (slightly belated) introduction to the site:  I'm Malc, and have been playing since (I think) 1976.  Among many, many other games, I've played and GM'd RuneQuest 2 and 3, Stormbringer, Call of Cthulhu and HeroQuest.  Currently feeling very excited about the new RuneQuest, which is why I joined here.

Sadly these days, work takes up too much of my time and energy for me to have as much time to actually play games as I'd like.  But the notion of running the classic RQ2 campaigns (Borderlands, Griffin Mountain, Pavis, Big Rubble) with RQG has finally got me making real efforts to get some time sorted and "just do it".  Seems I have more prospective players than I expected, so we'll see how it all goes...

Cheers!

Page 357:

”Should for some reason the shaman wishes to use the Discorporate spell instead of the natural ability...”. 

Should the Shaman wish or if the shaman wishes?

Minor error on Page 210,  in the description of slashing weapons:

“Weapons used for hacking or slashing. These can be anything from the brute power of the axe to the relative finesse of the broadsword.”

But in the weapons table, broadsword is listed as a cut-and-thrust weapon.

From the Future of Heroquest seminar at UKGE (which may have morphed into a future of *quest seminar), the schedule for RQG releases should be approximately monthly.  As well as the core book and slipcase set, there will also be a leatherette bound edition (although I’m not certain if that’s the slipcase set or just the main rulebook).

Buys the book. Does the happy RuneQuest dance.  Curses because I’m off to UK Games Expo today and can’t just sit and read it...

1 hour ago, Richard S. said:

Technically it was actually the literal God of middle earth (Eru Illuvatar caused Gollum to trip) and not luck but Frodo still accomplished his purpose of getting the ring to the mountain.

After many years of reading LotR, it wasn’t until listening to the BBC radio adaptation that I figured this.  After Gollum attacks on Mount Doom, Frodo, as ringbearer, says:

“Begone, and trouble me no more! If you touch me ever again, you shall be cast yourself into the Fire of Doom.”

and, of course, he does, and he is.  Since we established long ago that the ring has power over Gollum, you could argue that it was the power of the ring over Gollum that caused him to fall.  So, depending on your point of view, either Frodo destroyed the ring, or it destroyed itself. 

Sorry to add to the continued derailing of the thread, but I just had to share that. 

A few more I've spotted:

Page 22: "For the next two years there appeared phantasmal dragonewts ... "Five-year dream".  See Page 53 below

Page 49: "The Race known as the Aldryami consists of elves, dryads, pixies and runners".  Followed by a list with entries for elves, dryads and runners, but not pixies.

Page 53: "In 1539 the Dragonewts Dream began, and ended two years later... And after five years they disappeared again".   Seems to be confusion over 2 or 5 years here?  P22 has a 5-year dream with 2 years of phantasmal appearances, P53 a 2-year dream with 5 years of phantasms.

Page 60: "Wherever she won a great magic against the mutating forces of Chaos", should be victory, not magic?

Page 61: "Their departure revealed a thinly populated revealed a region thinly populated by indigenous tribes previously enslaved by the nomads"

Hope those help...

Page 42:  “The Colymar, as the most power tribe present,”;  should be “powerful”?