Ethereal

I have noticed similiarities between Glorantha myths and Spiritualism. I think he used many Earth Myths to give a varied and interesting world.

I tend to agree with these comments. I also would like to point out that the word Adventure' could also be used or combined with another word like 'Adventure Segement'. I checked an online Thesaurus with the word module and it gave some words that may work for you. So while I agree with another person that the word module is archic, language and meanings of words will change. Kinda like playing Postman through generations. 'Postman refers to the game children play of whispering in another persons ear and the next person does into another's ear and so on until it travels completely around a group and back to the first person. Then the children look at how the meaning and the words changed. Kinda like gossip.) Example using the words I used would be 'An adventure segment for Starship 'Argo'. (Argo was the name of the ship in the Greek Mythlogy 'Jason and the Argonauts'. Just some thoughts.

After The Vampire Wars is still available through The Design Mechanism https://thedesignmechanism.com/print-publications/?page=5 for 29.99 + shipping And Applicable Tax. That includes Hard copy and PDF. Drivethru also sells the PDF (no hard copy.) 12.99.

After reading all the comments, I remembered a game I acquired back in 1975 when I had not heard of RPG's but I did like Avalon hill games. I was in Korea and most G.I.'s spent their free time (at least on the post I was stationed) doing other things. The magazine 'ARES' advertised two play by mail games, by Shubel and Son. 'Tribes of Crane' and 'Starmaster'. So I subscribed to ‘Starmaster’ and played it by mail. Back then computers were expensive and little known or played with. Now a majority of people can play very similar games on computers. So the game mechanics were done by hand and so grew very expensive very fast and as my pay grade wasn’t that high I quit after a few months. The comments on this subject reminded me of that game. In the rule book I received there was a chart for creating aliens. There was no anthromorph, but there was a chart and you chose the characteristics for your alien race. The chart listed those characteristics on a 100 point basis mental/physical/communication/senses. I created a race called the ‘Gar’ra’vachi’. I don’t remember a lot about most of the characteristics, but to get something you wanted in your aliens you pick those characteristics to a maximum of your hundred points. If you wanted something additional you had to give up something. In my case I remember wanting the aliens to have a poison tail, retractable poison claws and a poison bite. But to get that I had to give up some agility. They had no ankles or wrists. So their feet and hands were basically an extension of their lower legs and lower arms. It was an interesting creative process.

Other Suns was never owned by FGU. Niall Shapero owns it. When I talked to Niall a few years ago he told me he still has and never gave up the rights to Other Suns. I tried to see if he would reprint it and he said no. By not giving up his rights to Other Suns he did not go through Legal issues that other creators associated with FGU (Fantasy Games Unlimited) did. Ex: "Space Opera" and "Villains and Vigilantes". As for Similarities Niall said that Steve Perrin helped develop/helped him when he was creating it. They were friends. As a GM though I found that "Worlds of Wonder" 'Future World' was my favorite to run. I'm more of a Sandbox GM. As others have made suggestions to similar space RPG's already I would like to add one more. 'Worlds Beyond' by https://www.pigames.net/store/default.php . It is not BRP but very similiar. Instead of 8 characteristics it has 9. 4 primary races. Dolf (lizard like), Human, Sher'tazi (Insect-like, 8 limbs) and Swarr (Cat-like). Furries don't bother me. With advances in genetics (Up-lift/Neo species) and Animal/Artificial Intelligence combinations) anything is possible.

Myself while I am an older gamer (since 1978) and have all the books mentioned + others, I like to use the RQ Encounter Generator and tweek any creatures listed if needed there. This thread gives information on it. The web site itself has Templates as well so you can create your own creatures or modify them. If you look around on the website you can find Mythras and other similiar BRP/D100 references to other Games with monsters/Aliens/etc. Legend, https://notesfrompavis.blog/ .

Question? Will there be Pre-Rolled Characters for new players unused to the game or playing online?

The Following is a discussion in Forums in general regards to your question. Hope this helps.

As an older Player/GM I started playing RunestQuest with Edition 2. I would recommend buying Editition 2 and one or more of the supplements to go with it. Snake pipe hollow was the first adventure I played in. The rulebook had everything one needed to start playing and run a game except an adventure. Whenever I introduce new players to Runequest, I always run RQ2. Then if they want to play another version, I go with RQ3 (Avalon Hill), RQ4 (Unpublished, played in, never run.), and Mongoose versions. A friend ran RQG, but I found it slow and overly complicated to get started playing. Maybe with the starter set (which I have acquired) it would be easier, but no one I know is currently running it. On Chaosiums website and Drivthru there are multiple supplements, adventures and the rule book for RQ2. Somewhere on BRP Central there is a listing of all the versions and supplements for Runequest. (except perhaps RQ4: Adventures in Glorantha, as it was never published). The ones I myself have used most have been 'Duck Pond' and 'Duck Tower' by Judges Guild. (Can also include 'City of Lei Tabor' and 'Broken Tree Inn') which gives a good layout for creating your own sandbox adventures. Unfortunately long out of print. Don't get discouraged about what you have to wait for, explore what is available and have fun.

I play in one of these games. Before Covid I ran an RQ2 game at Guardian games in Portland. Don't drive much, so Playing in ffliz's game is nice using Roll20 and Discord. There are a couple of other GM's in Portland who have run RQ but I have lost track of them. In regards to getting others interested in RQ I started with a group playing D&D, then when the DM moved on or lost interest I took over, but I wanted to run RQ so they played RQ. Some enjoyed it some didn't. Depended on how adventureous they were. D&D plays along traditional Mythologies, where as RQ is a Mythology in itself. "The Portland Game Store" in North Portland and "Guardian Games" in Portland both used to allow Gamers play in their stores before Covid. Now I don't know you would have to inquire as to what is available.

Well if you are going to be in Portland, Or. visiting Powells, you might want to check out 'Guardian Games' game store on the East side of the Willamette River. Probably not the biggest game store, but the biggest one I have been in. https://ggportland.com/

I must say, for me this Adventure is excellent. I am able to move encounters and items to different rooms and areas with little problems. Helps me deal with sneaky players who try out guess me in what happens next. Or buy/read The adventure before going through it. Thank You.

I played as a player in Snakepipe Hollow with beginning players and beginning characters after playing more advanced games of Runequest. For beginning characters the deeper you go the deadlier it gets. No group I ever went in there with made it all the way to the end. But none of the characters were more than middlin characters, most with one or two skills of 70% and a few above that. But it taught those who went in expecting be a rip-roaring hero character they could lose their characters quick. And if you lost the character you had to roll another one and that quite often meant sitting out of the game while others played. I hear that RGQ it takes even longer to roll-up a new character.

I am sorry to hear about Judges Guild products. But on another note it brings up other information that I have observed over the years on copyright and trademarks. There has been legal wrangling on several Game systems. Jeff Dee and Jack Herman vs. Fantasy Games Unlimited and more recent Tracy Hicks and Margret Weissman vs. WoTC (Hasbro) on Dragonlance. (Hasbro was also the Copyright/Trademark {+/-) holder during the Runequest hiatus). There were others, but I seem to remember that one of the discoveries made a point of stating that a game system could not be copyrighted, but created names, places, maps, worlds, name of spells, etc are the exclusive rights of the creators/publishers. I am not a lawyer, so if you do decide to do something about what I am thinking, make sure you do your own research on the subject. Or follow the guide lines of whichever rules system's SRD you choose to do this in. That would include publishers Guidelines. Judges Guild RQ Adventures followed a very simple pattern. Their products supplied the DM/Players a map marked with locations by letters/numbers, which corresponded with descriptions which had treasures, encounters (pre-rolled) with additional treasures/encounters that the DM would roll before each adventure fleshing out the players 'Heroes Journey'. When you check out many of the early Dungeons and Dragons adventures you find some of this same pattern. For anyone who does not have any old modules or does not want to buy new ones, you may check out Dragonfoot website: https://www.dragonsfoot.org/ Modules are free, there are no D100 modules listed, but there are a few alternate type character sheets. Also blank map sheets to use to map your own Campaign. Judges Guild Pattern. The pattern usually follows: Map. Buildings, local area (forest/plaza/road, etc.) Marked with letter/number: J-1, B-5, etc. on map. Followed with a section on Corresponding letters/numbers with either nothing or pre-positioned treasure, encounter or a few times a trap. At the back there was listing of random encounters or treasures that the DM could place where the DM wished. The DM could also place new spells, treasures or creatures of their creation. A great resource for beginning Dungeon Masters/Rune Masters is the Mythras Encounter Generator: https://mythras.skoll.xyz/ which allows you to create encounters and creatures prior to running an adventure. Or take an existing module, find a similar creature/monster/race and create a corresponding encounter. If anyone reading this wishes to add an observation that I missed please add, as I like to learn and get feedback on how accurate it is. Thanks.

I also have the old Judges Guild stuff. It is the best modules I have found to introduce RQ to new players. Quick and easy for the RQM (RuneQuest Master) set up and run a game. One session or several. Easy for the players (and RQM) to understand the basics of play and system. You only need the main rule book with the modules. (RQII) Duck Pond Duck Tower Broken Tree Inn City of Lei Tabor And of course the deadlist of the modules "Hellpits of Nightfang" where I tell new players that unlike most other fantasy RPG's Low level characters have almost no chance of resurrection. And someone usually challenges that.

Chaosium Website has Runequest Glorantha Fillable Character Sheets. The RQG character sheet has all or most of the same information as RQII Character Sheet. It is 4 pages vs. RQII Character 1 Sheet. So any information you feel is not needed you may skip over. https://www.chaosium.com/runequest-character-sheets/

I have purchased the Novels. I won't give a critique on it, but maybe a little more about the stories. If I like the books, I will probably send a message to the publisher. g33k I will pass along your message. Gives me an excuse for not waiting 12 years to contact him again. 🤪

I recently had an email conversation with Niall Shapero in regards to how he is doing and on his game 'Other Suns' and the novels he has worked on. I asked his permission to post some of that here. I have deleted out my comments and a few of his more personal comments about himself: Original message from 2009. NIALL SHAPERO If you're wondering why I haven't published the second edition, the answer is simple: the first publisher I lined up flaked out. And I had to re-enter the text, manually, to get it into Word format. That's been done, but I have stalled on reformatting and cleaning it up for publication (seeking a new publisher, basically) because the market just isn't there right now for non-hack&slash games. Also, there isn't that much money to be made (sorry about that) in self-publishing. If my co-author and I can sell one of our novels (we've written several, and continue to work on new projects) we can expect between 10k and 20k in advances on royalties (followed by a 10% of retail price royalty or thereabouts on copies sold, after the advance is made back). Compare this to $1500 or so if you are lucky in a one-time payment from most publishers (who then require that you sign a "work for hire" agreement, so there are NO royalties thereafter), you see the tradeoff. Writing a novel can be about the same amount of time spent as reworking, researching and updating an RPG like OTHER SUNS (I'd have to add considerably to the computer/nethacking side to release it now, as well as adding artillery, ground attack, and modern warfare updates for the miniatures types) but the potential payoff is much higher (yes, I know, it comes down to dollars and cents -- but, in tough times like these, doesn't just about every business enterprise end up the same?) I still run games, and enjoy running in other people's games, but that's PLEASURE. Writing a game (or a novel) is a lot of hard work. And with limited amounts of free time, I have to allocate what I have to what brings me the most returns (either in cold hard cash or in enjoyment factor). I don't have writer's block, THANK GOODNESS. I just did a word count on one set of works (more than one novel that my co-author and I have written) and the total word count was over two million words and still going strong. If you were in the Los Angeles area, or in the San Francisco bay area, I'd suggest you drop in for one of our games (I drive up to the SF Bay area from time to time in order to run games with people there -- it is, after all "only" a six hour drive :-)). Dear------ Wed, Aug 25 at 3:01 PM I'm afraid that I'm not all that much closer to a 2nd Edition OTHER SUNS than I was in 2009. I've since seen a good deal more about exoplanets, and concluded that I need to complete rework the star system generation scheme. I've also reworked the "past history" of the campaign environment, replacing the original timeline with the timeline used in the CHINESE CURSE series of novels (the first two of which have been published). What is the result? Well, with a significant rework of the "past history", the campaign era has been moved closer to "now". The CHINESE CURSE novels start in 2093, and the "opening moves" of the campaign are now set in the early 22nd century. In addition, the Earthclan nations have created biological uplifts ("aliens among us") by the mid-21st century, and players will be able to run PCs from any of the thirty-odd uplifted species (varying from uplifted wolves, cats and foxes, to more obscure species, like ferrets, raccoons and skunks). Or, the players can run humans (and thereby dodge all the social problems involved in running what are still considered to be "second class citizens" or worse, depending up which country they're from). If you're interested, RED SKIES, the first of the Chinese Curse novels is a police procedural set in 2093-2094 in Los Angeles. INTERESTING TIMES is set in 2094 and is more of a techno-thriller. RED STREETS (which I'm in the process of rewriting currently) is more of a "military SF" novel, as is HIGH GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS (which I will begin work on once RED STREETS is finished and off to the publisher. ALL OF YOUR DREAMS is something of a courtroom drama, and finished up the bulk of the plot lines started in the earlier books, and is currently in "rough draft" stage. RED STREETS was published in 2019, INTERESTING TIMES was published last March (the Publisher, Jarlidium Press, was put into "hibernation" when Seattle shut down, as the company was deemed "non-essential business" during the worst period of the pandemic so far). If you're interested, I've included links (below) to the two currently available novels and a review of the first novel by Leslie Fish (an SF novelist herself, as well as being a fairly well known "filker"). https://store.jarlidium.com/products/red-skies-the-chinese-curse-book-1 https://store.jarlidium.com/products/interesting-times-the-chinese-curse-book-2 http://lesliebard.blogspot.com/2019/10/book-review-red-skies-cole-and-shapero.html Given that the last time you wrote to me was almost twelve and a half years ago, you are hardly in danger of bothering me, If you buy the books, they'll add to the background material that should end up in the game, and you'll understand a bit more about how to play an "uplift", should the 2nd edition get out any time "Real Soon Now". If you like the novels, do tell the publisher. If you want to see more work from G. S. Cole & N. C. Shapero (me), then let the publisher know -- it will likely improve the chance of further novels being published. Also, if you suggest eBook format be provided, the publisher may be willing to get back to us and contract for eBook rights... I don't have a blog or a website (yes, I know that I SHOULD have a personal website at the very least, as a budding SF author, but amidst all the other tasks, I just haven't quite gotten around to it). I can be found on Facebook (as "Niall Shapero") and on Twitter (as "@NiallShapero") to see what I'm up to (or just what my random thoughts of the day are. Sincerely, Niall Shapero P.S. You may want to send your next e-mail a little bit sooner than 12 years from now, as (in the interim) any number of things could happen...) (Sorry I had to leave that comment in. it's true, but humoress.) Message from Aug 25, 2021: Wed, Aug 25 at 6:02 PM By all means, do please post to BRP Central. The more people that are interested in the game, the more likely I will be able to sell the idea of a second edition to a TTRPG publisher. Sorry to hear that your health is not all that you might want it to be. Of late, I've been seeing far too many of my old cronies crossing the rainbow bridge (Steve Perrin, a friend of mine from the 70s, and a gaming buddy when I was back in Berkeley, died suddenly this month -- he who wrote much of RUNEQUEST, and was responsible for much of WORLDS OF WONDER as well, not to mention the first edition of BRP). If you like the two novels, do write an honest review on Amazon, and tell the publisher that you like the novels (the more positive word HE gets, the more likely that I will be able to sell more novels to him). Cheers, Niall Shapero

I just learned that Steve Perrin, Co-Creator of Runequest, Superworld, White Bear and Red Moon, and writer of the particular article in 'All The Worlds Monsters III' made his transition from physical to spirit Friday the 13th, 2021. Steve Perrin may your HeroQuests continue on the God Plane. May we meet there and adventure together with others of like mind, like heart and like spirit. https://clipartix.com/superhero-clip-art-image-15322/ https://www.chaosium.com/blogvale-and-farewell-steve-perrin-1946-2021/?fbclid=IwAR3MXs9OzrzJvbUhFnodMc26zPp9uY2kV2Uo5H0VlnIv9gWgT71b0wio4h4

Another good source of conversions is Judges Guild. They had what they called "Judges Guild 'Universal Fantasy System'." Although it is probably better for NPC's and Monsters. https://judgesguild.net/library/universal.shtml

Check out "All The Worlds Monsters Vol III" by Chaosium, available through DriveThru. At the very beginning of Vol III is a short article by Steve Perrin on how to convert Monsters and races to Runequest. "All The Worlds Monsters Vol I and II" have more races and monsters you can convert using Steve Perrin's Article.

The Kickstarter was for FATE Core Rules. I don't know how compatable that is with BRP/D100. I wanted to buy it as well until I found that out. However Mindjammer Press http://www.mindjammerpress.com/ gives additional information. Be sure to read the comments, before deciding to buy. You can also get The Chronicles of Future Earth: The Swallower of Souls - Quickstart Adventure. (for Free or donation) https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/253485/The-Chronicles-of-Future-Earth-The-Swallower-of-Souls--Quickstart-Adventure

I started Playing RQ in Korea in 1982. When I got back to the United States I got away from playing (had fun with raising kids.) Then Avalon Hill started publishing RQ, then they were acquired by Hasbro and Hasbro quit publishing the game. During those lean years of absence there were many older players like myself who still had interest but no new material so many started creating new rules, spells, etc. We communicated by email. Nothing published (As far as I know). It kept the game alive for many of us. It was called Runequest -- RuneQuest Rules. http://mail.rpgreview.net/mailman/listinfo/runequest_rpgreview.net Quote from Website: ‘This is a mailing list for discussing the RuneQuest game system, including RuneQuest (1st edition, The Chaosium), RuneQuest (2nd edition, Chaosium), RuneQuest (3rd edition, Chaosium, Avalon Hill, Games Workshop), RuneQuest: Adventures in Glorantha (unpublished), RuneQuest (Mongoose edition), RuneQuest II (aka Mongoose II) aka Wayfayer, and RuneQuest 6 (Design Mechanism) aka Mythras, and RuneQuest Adventures in Glorantha (Chaosium). This list is the successor to the RQ-dailies/digest (1987-1994, Bell/HL), RQ4 Adventures in Glorantha (1993-1994), RuneQuest-Rules (1994-1998 Wharton/Imagic/Crashbox), RQ3 (Yahoo! 2006-2016).’ The email list ran from April 2008 to January 2019. It is Archived at: http://rpgreview.net/pipermail/runequest_rpgreview.net/ It is not cannon, but kept many of us interested in our favorite game. I think you may find many things of great interest.