Mankcam

Personally I'm fine with broad abstraction for damage, like Simon suggested. If I want more detail I turn to the Investigator Weapons books, Volume 1 and 2. Even those books are too granular for me at times, but the attention to detail does help with immersion.

Nope, go with GM I reckon, it just seems to work best...

You could easily do it by having Characteristics and receiving modifiers for particular abilities according to the concept. It would work better by heavily using the difficulty levels from CoC 7E, where you include Hard/Difficult (1/2 skill) as a way of measuring level of ability, and how this works with opposed rolls, and add bonus/penalty dice (or modifiers) to the situation depending upon character concept. You could also do it by using by keeping the Characteristics and using the BRP Skill Categories as actual Skills, which gives a little more granularity, although still cuts down the Skill list considerably. You could still use the same concept, and add modifiers to Skill Categories to portray skill use. However, for both ideas, as already stated above by Paolo, you would have to heavily modifier the Skill Check system for this, otherwise you would be maxing characters out very early. You also could easily go the other way as well, and not have Characteristics at all, just having a Skill list. In this case some traits could be expressed within that Skill list, such as using the Brawn and Resilience skills from Mythras in place of STR and CON, for instance. I think this would work well with the current Skill Check system, and keep the skill granularity that SDLeary pointed out. I thought about doing all this a few years ago, but at the end of the day I figured I wasn't actually playing BRP if I altered things like this too much. However in this day and age where we all have word processors to build character sheets, there are many options to go with if you want to trial a BRP-lite

This notion may have come up once or twice many years ago, and I would of just assumed it couldn't happen as it would have been out of context with the rest of the rules. Hopefully the new edition fixes this, as it seems like a big loophole. I would accept that possibly a Priest could cast a spell which allows individuals to link up for a combined spell magnitude, but leaving it as RAW just seems to be at a discord with the rest of the rules. Well 30yrs later and there is still something new to learn...

It will likely be a definative edition of RuneQuest, so yep, this will probably be a good version to have if you want RuneQuest in its original setting

From my hazy memory...but you should be able to find some bits n pieces over the web if you hunt about. The Mycenean info is much harder to find than the later period. Much of it got incorporated into the Hellenic myths and lore, with no direct porting, such as Dyeus exploits attributed later to two separate Hellenic deities, Zeus and Dionysus. I remember reading last year that the goddess Hebe and Theria were the same goddess in Mycenanen legends who got morphed into Hera later on. Yet the name Hebe shows up later as one of Hera's daughters, so its all pretty confusing. The big issue is that often the Myceanan information is scattered, rather than compiled under its own subject. Sometimes you will be reading about an ancient Hellenic deity, and in the description there may be references to the Myceanan origins of that deity. I don't have a particular site to re-enforce my statement, but you could take a look at these. There will be people here on this forum who know this stuff much better than me, and they can probably provide you with much better links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycenaean_Greece https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyeus https://goddessinspired.wordpress.com/2012/03/26/hera-the-pre-hellenic-great-mother-goddess-of-the-minoans-and-mycenaean-greeks/ http://www.ancient.eu/Mycenaean_Civilization/ http://ancient-greece.org/history/bronze-age.html http://www.theoi.com/ http://www.mythweb.com/encyc/index.html http://www.greekmythology.com/ Sometimes you will find Myceanan information looking under the Achaeans, as it is an interchanable term. However this is also problematic, as the Achaean name remained in Hellenic times and by this time referred to a particular ethnicity of Hellenic culture, alongside the Dorians and Ionians, so most Archaean information often pertains to this rather than the earlier Myceananan Age. Anyway I certainly am no scholar, so these links are not exhaustive. I'm sure others may have more comprehensive links, and if so, I would like to see them as well :-)

Although Orlanthi may be less urban-centric than Lunars or Malkioni etc, I don't think they are not urban in nature. Earlier Gloranthan products hinted at an urbanised Sartarite culture, and more recent products support this. I feel the Orlanthi are now presented as a heroic age culture, very much with ancient Thracian and Mycenaean influences. There is a big focus on family lines and a network of homesteads and villages, but where major tribes interface they have formed tribal confederations and co-residence, resulting in some pretty big urban populations. So I think it is better to think in terms of population size rather than cultural level. Villages are very rural, whereas the large cities like Boldhome, Jonstown, Notchet etc would be quite urbanised. I think it is the influence from the RQ3 char gen (and continued in the MRQ/RQ6 line) that prompt one to think of all Orlanthi as being barbarians in a cultural context. However, in the previous edition, RQ2, you just rolled social class, not cultural level. A roll of 'Barbarian' could certainly refer to Orlanthi outlanders, but it would more likely pertain to characters with backgrounds like Praxians or Balazorings. In RQ2 I think most of the Orlanthi in the steads and villages could have been created with the Peasant background, whereas those from cities like Jonstown or Boldhome could use the Townsman background. So you could have a Orlanthi Townsman, and a Lunar Townsman, and although they would be very different people in terms of values and trappings, they could both be urban in background. I think the line between urban and rural was quite fine in ancient times, so it would also blur in a bronze age world like Glorantha. I just tend to think the Orlanthi are a rudimentary or practical culture, rather than a barbaric one. The larger Orlanthi cities are definitely urbanised enough to have thieves and street urchins, so I can imagine that the Lanbril cult would have opportunities for followers in these areas

I would like Mythras to be married to the Design Mechanism's Mythic Earth series as a priority, and if they want to do a fantasy world then expanding the setting of the world of Thennla will certainly do the trick However if there is an IP wishlist, then yeah I would love to see the Design Mechanism do a very immersive and complex version of Frank Herbert's DUNE...

In the early Mycenaean Age, the sky god Dyeus (who would become the Hellenic deity Zeus) wasn't a husband of the Moon-Earth goddess Hebe/Theria (the pre-Hellenic version of Zeus's wife, Hera). I think Dyeus was probably depicted as an even more primal version of Zeus. I'm not sure how those who tried to emulate him acted, but the 'rogue-roustabout-raider' concept may have been right, and would be a good analogy for these Orlanthi. So perhaps an increased focus on the Orlanth Adventurous aspect. 'Reckless' may be a prominent keyword :-)

Although Orlanth is bonded to the Earth Mother, he obliviously had 'encounters' before, and during his husbandry to Ernalda, like any of the mythological rulers did. Odin was not entirely faithful to Freya, and Zues was certainly never exclusive with Hera (despite her jealousy and wrath at such).I'm not sure when the dalliance with the Lady Of The Wild occured, but that won't be the only myth in which Orlanth shares the affections of a goddess who isn't Ernalda.

Although the rules for shields are not in the CoC7E corebook, there are rules for them in the 7E system. You need to get the supplement Cthulhu Thru The Ages, as it has char gen and game mechanics for several different eras and settings. The rulebook is very slim, and would have made a great appendix to the core CoC 7E rulebook. Shields are definitely covered in there. From memory it works a little bit differently to using Shields in RQ or the BGB. Maybe closer to Elric/Stormbringer I think, I'm unsure. I do remember that you can use a Shield with different outcomes, depending on if you are using it defensively or aggressively. The primary way to use a Shield is to use it defensively. If doing this, then you choose to use the Dodge option; however you roll your Shield skill instead of the Dodge skill. If you beat or draw with the opponent's Fighting roll, then the attack is fully blocked, and no damage is done. If you succeed, but the opponent has a better success level, then you only manage to parry some damage, instead of a full block. You roll a shield AP dice (which varies according to shield size), and the result is reduced from the attacker's rolled damage. I'm unsure, but i think if the opponent succeeds two levels better (ie rolls an Extreme and the defender only rolls a Regular success) then I don't think any significant parrying took place, and you would take full damage. I can't remember but I think holding a shield may affect your movement due to it's weight, so I'm unsure if this affects any Initative rolls or fleeing etc. I do remember that you can state that you want to put a concerted effort into trying to block/parry, and you gain a Bonus Dice to your Shield roll, although I think you forfeit any attack roll within that turn. If you choose to use the shield aggressively then you use it with the Fight Back option. You roll your Shield skill, and if you beat the attacker's success level then you have managed to shield bash, and roll damage to the attacker. However if the attacker draws with you, or rolls a better success than you, then they get past your shield and you take full damage. So, as usual, Fighting Back is a gamble that either pays off well, or pays off badly. I have not used these rules yet, so I am a little hazy, but I think that was the general gist. There must be a bit more to it however. I don't have the book here to check, but I'm somewhere in the ballpark on it. It would be well worth your while to grab the Cthulhu Thru The Ages pdf to clarify. If you are running an ancient roman setting there are rules for updating to Invictus 7E in there, which includes weaponry and also general background information and how to fit this into the 7E rules.

Wow, very cool!

Totally agree with the above. Whilst I prefer the extended life-path approach to char gen (like in Traveller rpg, etc), it's also good to have a template for a generic build char gen, or a quick char gen process. Glad to see that perhaps these templates could fill this role to some an extent.

OMG Ian Cooper you HAVE to remain on staff, all of this is on my wish list for either HQ or RQ !!!

Personally I think HQ Cthulhu would work well in terms of game mechanics, but it would be not a good move to try and displace one of Chaosium's best sellers with another system doing the setting. I think both Cthulhu and Glorantha are well suited to the BRP based systems they are tied to, so I'm more than happy for Call of Cthulhu to remain as it is, and for RuneQuest to return to Glorantha. Having said that, I would love to see the generic HeroQuest rules get some love and perhaps a face-lift. I think Pulpy settings like Crime-Noir, Action-Adventure, or Murder-Mystery would be the perfect fit for the HeroQuest rules, and could breathe new life into it as a product line (as Glorantha is bound to have alot of RuneQuest air play). Personally I will keep buying HQ Glorantha products for the setting material, as it will be easy to adapt to RuneQuest, and The Coming Storm looks perfect for this. So I don't think HQ Glorantha should go away, but it doesn't need to compete with RuneQuest when it could be perfectly suited for a Pulp genre. I'ld love to see a Pulp Era product line kick off with the HeroQuest system!

Wow! The preview looks pretty good

Next we'll see Julian Assange release evidence on Wikileaks regarding the 'true agenda' of Chaosium, heh heh

Excellent!

Yes this is great news!

Cool - I'm eager to order two slipcases for the sets of G2G that I already own!

Apparently a reboot movie is planned for Stargate

Father Ted, Dad's Army.. ? Obviously Arkright Parellels heh heh Yep you guys are definately building up to the dystopian future setting of 'The Worm That Turned', as seen in 'The Two Ronnies'

Perfect !!! They definately know Glorantha

lol !!! Just too funny

Brilliant !!!