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StephenMcG

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StephenMcG last won the day on October 29 2018

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  • RPG Biography
    Playing since 1978 and currently gaming weekly online and fortnightly face to face.
  • Current games
    RuneQuest/HeroQuest hybrid; FFG Star Wars; Champions
  • Location
    London
  • Blurb
    50 something bloke who enjoys gaming with friends...

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  1. To misquote a Men They Couldn't Hang song Some of us are born to lead Some of us are born to breed And some of us are born to sing love songs Some of us are born to win Some of us are born to sin And some of us are good Pol Joni boys
  2. And when will you be running your seminar?
  3. @Joerg and @jajagappa, I appreciate all the help and advice, there are a LOT of words and all of them useful. My group is a long-standing one, we have been playing together for almost 25 years. We have played a multitude of different systems. It was playing Blades in the Dark that made me want to try a bit more urban and social. I think a lot of the things mentioned are where I have been walking. What I need are the tools to plan and run the session. As you guys say, there needs to be trust that just because they are not equipped for fighting, I won't take advantage. They need to trust that I have enough depth that when they dig they will find interesting things. In essence, what I am looking for is guidance on how to build stuff, layer things up, deliver interesting and satisfying twists and conflicts. I am sure there is a great seminar to be run teaching folk how to do this. Stephen
  4. I have been gaming since 1977 and pretty comfortable at running an adventure, telling a story and managing combat. I am clueless though at running an urban campaign, managing the social situations, laying down the mosaic of politics in a way players can negotiate, get involved and find things out. So last night was pushing my comfort levels quite substantially. Now, I work in the managerial class and, in my time, have been at a LOT of training courses. The best significantly improved my ability as a manager and the decent ones delivered insight. I know I would pay to be trained in how to GM an urban campaign but never really heard of such things. It would probably be an interesting day out and it would enhance my hobby.
  5. Decided to insert some social/political sessions into my Pavis game, remind the players of the reasons they have been running around delivering for their patrons and cults by pushing artefacts in the Rubble. I prepped lots of people, potential storyline, rumours and actual facts for them to discover. What actually happened was that they half picked up on a thread, ran with it in entirely the opposite direction, deepened it by looking for people who did not exist as far as my prep was concerned. Thank goodness for Jon Turner's Rubble Runner books. I don't know if Jon is on these forums but they saved my life last night, such an easy reference. I found two characters I could use right away, though one suffered a sex change, and provided the players with foils that had connections and depth. Made it look like I knew what was happening. Their position is now more nuanced, they are not sure they are 100% committed to their role as the Grey Company in the Real City because of other social commitments and Benderath has become less a trusted patron (actually due to a terribly timed insight fumble) as they think he might be playing a double game. Great fun that would have been less so without Jon's books. Well worth the cash. https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/browse?author="Jon Hunter" Stephen
  6. Help yourself, our gaming got disrupted for a few months there but we finished the tomb last night. The room with the sarcophagus' I made into a doorway to a heroquest (talked about in another thread) where the adventurers needed to prove their worth rather than a straight spirit combat, it allowed the players to delve a bit into Flintnail lore. I had reckoned three different heroquests (one for each guardian) and used the Flintnail because they interacted with the dwarf ghost. They brought out an artifact (that I left undefined) which later proved to interface with the rock-infused character to help them past an obstacle. The hybrid man/earth Elemental allowed them to bond with the dryad in the mask later on and persuade her to use the gnome to carry the paralysed cgaracters to safety with the remaining, battered characters holding off harassing Lunar troops before they get saved by Blackpowder wielding Flintnails. The next scenario is going to be social, as Sor-Eel shows off newly "discovered" artworks recovered from the Big Rubble by Piers Bolde. I had emphasised several times about how priceless these artworks might be while players were in there. Sor-Eel plans to ship these back to Glamour, to curry favour there. He is throwing a huge reception to show off the artwork and snub the Pavus cult holdouts. This is where I will have the players mix with the various strata of society they gave met, get some insight into the various political games going on, and potentially set up what excitement they engage in next.
  7. I bought into the keyword system in HeroQuest quite strongly. It especially works if you are playing seasonal or yearly games where it is assumed characters have lives outside of the adventuring gameplay. I would not mind seeing keywords with keyword thresholds. So a character might begin with keywords that reflect Homeland, Occupation and Cult. Each of these would have a base level and suggested skills to be under that. You would get points to distribute within the keyword skills. If you come up with a skill that feels like it belongs to a keyword, not currently on your sheet, you can add it. "Everyone from the Old City in Prax knows how trolls work, can I put troll lore into my homeland keyword?". The thresholds in my head are 30/50/70/90. When you get a keyword, it will be at one of those thresholds, you mightvdescribe them as Fair, Good, Master, and Heroic. If your keyword is Fair (30%) and you get five or more skills within it to Good (50%), then the whole keyword is wrapped up to Good, base skills now become 50%, for anything that sits within the keyword. I exclude characteristic bonuses from the keyword skills, so your sword skill might be 45% boosted by Agility of +15%, it remains Fair as far as they keyword goes. This adds a bit of friction, where skills always have two figures on the sheet 45 (60) or are colour coded to skill type and the player adds skill to bonus each time. I find it useful though, the characters become more focussed on the keyword attributes (playing more to archetype) but also being more competent as time goes on, not having orphan skills (like walk in snowshoes) and being able to do things people of that homeland/occupation/cult should be able to do at an appropriate level, even if the ability has never come into gameplay before. It is possible for players, through play, to suggest adding, or replacing a keyword. This would involve talking through why people in the gameworld might see them as something, like River Voice, picking through the skills that comprise that role and dictate a reasonable keyword threshold, then updating the character sheet. I work on the basis of a character having no more than 3-4 keywords. Stephen
  8. I have tossed this about in my head but am coming up blank about what choice or task I should put into the station.
  9. I guess that does provide them with the context of Mostal, the World Machine and the problem with growth for orthodox Mostali. Thanks.
  10. I realise I have my narrative wrong. the first station needs to be about Flintnail going to Pavis to see the faceless statue and stay to oversee its use in the building of the ancient city. I reckon that I need to use that station to give some insight into dwarves and the fundamentals of their existence, as well as their involvement in the city as an engine to drive a new Green Age rather than a place to live. So that becomes the first station, the next is the buy-in of the dwarves to the Pavis project and the third station is the path to the generations of Flintnail dwarves which have become dwarves grow and die rather than the potentially immortal Mostali...
  11. I think I have my stations. To make sense, you need to know the players have Heroquest versions of their RQG characters for heroquesting. On a heroquest, abilities work once UNLESS something there restores "spent" powers. I give HQ numbers by converting an RQG skill to a HQ skill (10+(RQG skill/5)). So 50% skills equate to 20, 100% skills to 30 (10W). What comes next is the bare bones, I am hoping things won't be as obvious when I layer on the narrative but my players are Glorantha neophyte, this kind of stuff is as much about revealing mythos and lore as anything else. STATION 1: The PCs find themselves in a strange place, they have to first identify the location as a dwrf's view of the world machine, and mosrali working to repair it. Success moves on, failure moves on with a -3 penalty to all future contests. This is easy (13) if a Pavis or Flintnail cultists is on the quest, more difficult if not (18) and difficult if enemy cultists are in charge (5W). the next part is taking part in a conversation with Mostali about fixing the machine. Open-handist, individualist, orthodox and Flintnail perspectives are offered and the players need to choose who to support. Each choice has different impacts in later contests. A stranger arrives with his daughters, asking for Mostali that were interested in a new way to repair the World Machine that makes Growth part of the solution but requires sacrifice by some Mostali. There are then a number of rolls where the greater the number of successes versus 5W gains bonuses to Flintnail lore rolls. Pavis cultists work against 1W rather than 5W. STATION 2: the PCs find themselves in woods rather than the innards of the World Machine. They can see fields in the distance where mostali/human hybrids are tending crops that seem to be failing. The dwarves are actually building the crops rather than growing them. The PCs need to help by getting the crops to grow, using fertility magic, showing the dwarves how to make the crops succeed. The dwarves tell them of a woman who grows crops nearby. The players find a walled garden where the plants grow so much they are getting choked. The woman lives with 4 ancient uncles who give her varying advice break the walls (elf uncle), eat the plants (troll uncle),trade her plants with the dwarves (pavis), burn the plants and allow new ones to grow (dragon uncle). The plants the players bring to the dwarves do not grow, they need the woman or her fertility magic. The players broker a marriage between the head dwarf and the woman. The dwarf promises to build a better farm for the woman's uncles and she promises to use her magic to grow the plants. STATION 3: is very sketchy. It has one bit to do with the faceless statue, I think how both the statue and Jolanti are the working bits of the city of Pavis. One bit that shows that the building is simply a gate to somewhere better, possibly risking letting something in rather than providing access to a destination. Chaos? The final bit has got to be about combining stasis and movement, so that the movement of the World machine finally delivers eternal motion where nothing ever actually changes. It also ties the questers into keeping the secret. This provides a glimpse into Ian Thompson's Flintnail future. which I have bought into. I want the players to come out knowing a bit more about dwarves, and the differences in the Flintnail ones, and the PCs to have proven their Flintnail-friendly credentials and gain access to the next part of the tomb. SO much reading....
  12. Ha! The scenes in the frescoes will be scenes in the HeroQuest, some clues for the players if they look at them closely enough.
  13. My working plan for the Heroquest is to outline the Flintnail project. The creation of the first man/dwarf hybrids; the place of a new Green Age in the World machine; the creation of the Ancient Measure. Each ghost represents an element of that and tests those who enter the tomb. If the heroes fail, they find themselves back outside the tomb. Worse failures may damage their links with relevant runes and magic. It might add passions. Obviously worse failures will result in worse outcomes. If they try to enter, the magical defences are enhanced against them and the defenders more dangerous. At the end, the heroes will be in the tomb with the sarcophogi open. Each fresco would have a stasis, harmony or earth rune cleverly stitched into it. One of them will now see a fresco that has a man rune which hides the secret door. Just need to detail the stations now. Thank you for being my sounding board, even just knowing I am trying to explain it to others means I need to think it through in more detail (and finish the thinking).
  14. I am working my party through this dungeon. I have been leaning on the mythic links to Old Pavis and that the tomb is a place where the veil between reality and the Hero Plane is thin. The details of the dungeon are quite firmly fixed in reality and less reliant on ancient myth and lore. Anyone have any ideas? I am thinking that the three ghosts in the first false chamber be the door to a minor Heroquest rather than a mundane fight with three ghosts. Would appreciate any input on what the Heroquest should be or how later elements might lean into the Pavis/Ernalda relationship. After all, Pavis is quite heavily linked to Green Age magic and politics.
  15. All this is coming a bit too slowly for me! I am running my group through the original material. Last night they got to the Tomb of Yurmonis. I mean, it is a mean, killer of a dungeon and I like player deaths to be epic, so I had to work hard to keep them alive last night. It didn't help that one player had to cancel last minute, so they were already under-strength. They then proceeded to throw more 90+ rolls than anyone has any right to, both attacks and parries for solid 70 and 80% skills were failing regularly and the first round or two saw two of the three PC fail 80% inspiration rolls, one fumbled. There was a Flintnail dwarf, I thought I would give them a boost, sacricing a POW to commune with Flintnail using his 80% Harmony rune, failed, almost fumbled. The real investigator type, having learned (again) to stay out of melee, anticipated both the spear and rolling ball traps and then made the worst possible decisions, enhancing the effect of each. He ran and jumped into the pit when he heard the gearing of the ball trap! That was essentially as far as they got in 3 hours. The fight took ages because they failed to hit so often. Instant death for the ball trap victim? No. I decided, on the fly, that someone caught in there would be engulfed by the stone and emerge as a rock golem...they will see two additional players next week as reinforcements but their first encounter will be the rock golem. If they beat it, they will be able to dig out their friend from the Rubble. I am inclined, at the end of this scenario, to add some kind of rocky growth to his skin, like it has become part of him...boost his armour points and restrict his ability to wear armour in some locations. Will be a strange Lankhor Mhy sage in future, marked by the Rubble....
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