Mankcam

RD100 certainly does this very well, having a skill list about the same size as the skill list from the MRQ D100 SRD line (perhaps even less skills); yet allowing for numerous specialties/traits, so there's no shortage for skill choice. Totally works for me, and it's a shame the new RQ isn't doing something like this as you can cover all the bases without making the character sheet look clunky with huge skill lists. RD100 may well replace the BGB for me, it has done things really well

Yes that's very much a good thing!

Ok raising this thread from the dead, as I'm coming in very late to this party Was Nameless Streets for HQ1 or HQ2? (If it was for HQ2 I'ld be interested in chasing it up somewhere)

Starting to sound similar to HQ in many ways

Yes the Gene Day art was great, hearing that name makes me want to go find my old RQ2 Companion that I have in storage somewhere. That art really felt quite ancient and sword n sorcery, and it really didnt lock onto any real world historical culture. Now I'm off to search for my RQ2 Companion...

A lot of the artwork from the RQ2 era hinted at being very ancient world, perhaps more vaguely Hellenic or generic sword n sorcery than anything. However it was all very non-specific and quite inconsistent, esp books like Pavis & Big Rubble which had a very ancient flavoured setting but some of the tavern patrons looks like late medeival from memory. However it did get more consistently ancient flavoured as more RQ2 products came out. RQ3 core book also felt quite ancient, but it wasnt Glorantha. Yes I think it was the pics of Orlanthi in the Glorantha box and later in the Dorarstor book that really headed things down the celtic/saxon flavour that was much more prominent from the HW/HQ era onwards. Yes really pinning the Orlanthi down to a Mycenaean Age style culture is recent, but I feel it does pay homage to some of the inferences from RQ2.

Most hardcover rpg books retail around the $50 USD, so I dont think thats a major issue. I know hardcovers look better on the store shelves, and personally I prefer nice hardcovers, otherwise I tend to go for pdfs instead.

Well if it gets newbies away from consoles and sitting at the gaming table then I'm can't argue with that

In the Sartar books, just bear in mind that many of the illustrations of Sartarites may not be consistent with contemporary depictations (which is a return to earlier inferences from the RQ2 era). From the Guide To Glorantha onwards, Orlanthi are less celtic/saxon influenced, and are more closer to a Mycenaean Age culture (think possibly Thracians meet Minoans and Achaeans). Other than that, the content remains current.

Yes having a separate booklet for setting introduction is a good idea I also think both booklets may be excellent to include with a nice GM screen down the track, as a 'starter bundle' perhaps.

The HeroQuest Sartar books and Pavis books contain alot of localised information, and the HeroQuest stats make up less than 10% of the content. Even if not playing HeroQuest, you will find a wealth of knowledge in these books.

I agree that referencing the original character from the old RQ covers is a great idea

This artwork above is good, but it reminds me of a MMO game or animation series. I think it definitely illustrates Glorantha, but it just doesn't call out to me particularly as a RuneQuest piece, it feels too modern perhaps. Those Orlanthi definitely do need to be a bit more olive-skinned if they are meant to be depicting Esrolians, Sartarites, Hendreiki, or Pavisites. Maybe they are from further north and closer to Valind's Glacier, somewhere like Aggar perhaps? Anyway it's a work in progress, so it'll be interesting to see the finished product. Not enough boob plate LOL

Cipher is not a bad system, but I think BRP still plays much better. In BRP I really like how the core % mechanic is so logical, and how the game mechanics fade into the background, letting the actual storytelling take centre stage. Let us know how your experiences with RD100 go!

When I was in my teens and twenties I would tend to go through long stages of having months and months of having absolutely no one to game with, interspersed with periods of regular session-playing, during which we would play anywhere from tri-weekly thru to fortnightly. So for me it was often a drought for months, but when it did eventually rain then it tended to bucket down. Now I have had a regular group playing for almost the last decade, for which I count myself very lucky. However due to all our vocational and domestic commitments we only aim for a monthly session, although this can easily stretch to double and sometimes triple that. We do use a chat channel and play an online MMO on a weekly or fortnightly evening, but that's purely to maintain our social connections, it pales in comparison to when we actually sit down face-to-face for a tabletop rpg session. As the main GM, I appreciate having published campaign material I can read in prep in the month or so prior to our session, although I sometimes import other scenarios or make my own up in between the major published episodes. I think if I had both more actual time and more 'mental' time, then I wouldn't really care too much for published scenarios. However being time-poor I can say that a good published campaign is a great structure for me to use as a foundation for our own games. I agree that it is an odd era. On one hand the concept of tabletop rpgs is no longer viewed as a nerdy activity, and indeed the concept of 'nerds' seems to have almost disappeared. Now it's replaced with the less derogatory notion of 'geekdom', and also due to the film industry, fanzine genre and gaming is also viewed much more mainstream now. Certainly the industry's publishing standards have also really picked up, so I find it is the best time for rpg products overall. On the other hand, actual tabletop rpg remains a fringe hobby within the larger fanzine hobby scene. In Australia I tend to find rpg books on the outer shelves in fanzine shops (predominantly D&D), with graphic novel comics, premium board games, trading card games, and miniature games populating most of the shop space. These fanzine shops were never big in rural or regional areas, but in our larger urban cities these shops are getting harder to find as well, with a large number of people who are attracted to the fanzine genre flocking to the electronic games shops for their PC and console games. So I guess this trend is everywhere to an extent. It is quite unusual, as the online presence of tabletop rpgs probably keeps the entire industry from going under I think, as the actual physical presence of the hobby seems to be dwindling. Time will tell if this trend continues I guess.

I really appreciate having high production rpg books with nice hardcovers and evocative artwork. Its really great to see Chaosium products matching the premium games in production standards. I also love immersive settings, and I can see the point having entire setting lines. The Gloranthan and Lovecraftian settings work for me in the fact that they are both very rich in flavour, and they are quite different to each other. However for me I also really like making my own settings, or reading a book or watching a movie and then porting it into an rpg for me to run. So both the BGB and HQ2 shine for me in that they are all I need to do that. (Now that RD100 is here it may also be a contender). The point is that I see the value of having a generic set of mechanics that I can adapt for my own games, and I really hope that this idea doesnt get totally lost in this current era of setting games.

Yes that certainly was a shame, but things appear to be forging ahead with Alephtar Games. I would not be surprised if more of the previous titles show up under the RD100 moniker.

If the new RQ has production values akin to the current CoC 7E line then it will look really great. Gone are the cardboard covers with predominantly b&w interior; the new standard is very colourful and up to par with the premium contemporary game line productions. From what we have glimpsed thru the blogs, RQG will look pretty good. And if HQG is anything to go by, it will certainly have the right flavour and look great on the shelves. I can't speak for the BGB line, but I'm pretty comfortable in the knowledge that the RQ line will be in good form.

Something like that could work as well, its a good way to go. I always liked the ammount of skills available in BRP, but never saw the point with listing all of them on the character sheet. Not only does it make a sheet look unnecessarily cluttered, it also makes it harder at a glance to see what your character is good at. A character sheet in which the most profficient skills are more obvious tends to help form a sharper mental image of the character. In many ways I would prefer if the RQ/BRP Skill Categories were actal base skills which get regular use, with a few bonus specialities within each category. RD100 kinda goes along those lines, and these rules may be good to consider likewise, perhaps with an even smaller list for the sake of simplicity.

Yes RD100 certainly does skill specialities rather well

I agree with the idea of using Legend's 'Historia Rodentia', as it is designed exactly for this kind of game. Legend products are 95% compatible with Mythras, so it makes little difference if used with Legend or Mythras as the core system. Another idea I was considering was to do The Wind In The Willows setting using HQ, but that's another matter. If you are fixed on Mythras, then at least get the Historia Rodentia pdf; it does most of the work for you. And, like Simon, I also did not know what to expect this thread to be about, based on its title, heh heh

Yes, the great thing about pdfs is that you can smuggle them in without any scrutiny, heh heh

Not just any ordinary Aussies Paolo, looks like we're both Queenslanders! Looking forward to good things with RD100

Followed your link in Google Chrome, and no problems (So I've bookmarked to that link now)

Ok back home. I couldn't work out how to send a direct screen shot, so I pasted it into a word doc and attached that - see attachment. I think there may be an Adblock app in my Chrome browser, I suspect that is the cause of the message... warning page.docx