Mankcam

I first came across this concept with Enchatments years ago in the the RQ3 core rulebook, and it was a great way to create permanent magic items. Happy to see that it was included in MW.

There are some more recent systems that allow flexible character creation (not archetype cloning), but D&D sure ain't one of them. Even the current edition still feels like being stuck with a MMO toon rather than being able to portray an actual character. BRP will always be one of my favourite systems, and Sandy pretty much sums up my feelings exactly

Welcome to this forum. The BRP system is undergoing a time of transition and change at present, but this online community is very robust and healthy. Feel free to ask any questions, as there is a huge wealth of communal knowledge here. For the most part you'll find this site is one of the most civil forums on the web Enjoy yourselves!

In regards to the Sartar Exiles, I agree that they are probably an assorted mix of individual outlaws as well as refugee families. The largest recent refugee population may have come from an influx of Kheldon, Colymar, and Cubrea fleeing persecution after the failed Starbrow's Rebellion, although I don't think it was a mass migration of tribes; rather that the most recent exiles are more likely to be from these tribes. Any Sartarite outlaw fleeing Sartar Lunar Provinicial rule may end up in Pavis where the Lunar governance is less oppressive due to its frontier nature.

I thought Ronegarth is the actual name of the entire settlement which includes Fort Raus and the village of Weis. Or perhaps Fort Raus itself was renamed Ronegarth, and Ronegarth is the epicentre of the settlement of Weis. Locals probably just collegial refer to the fort itself as the Duke's Fort. Yes it's confusing...

Over the years my Gloranthan fantasy game accumulated numerous BRP rules, being a mishmash of RQ2, RQ3, SB, BGB, and anything else that I was influenced by. During the last decade the BGB has been the foundation, so in combat every subsequent defensive action (Dodge or Parry) after the first one incurred an accumulative -30% modifier until the defender was unable to attempt further defensive actions. Within the context above, we ruled that Small Shields granted an additional Parry action which did not accrue the modifier; Medium Shields granted two actions, and Large Shields granted three. I am unsure if I read this rule from one of the rule sets, or online from a digest/forum, but it stuck for us. It tended to justify why someone would lug around a shield as opposed to just parrying with a weapon. I really liked these rules, although I think RQ6 also did a good job with how shields work within the MRQ D100 SRD framework rather than with the classic BRP lineage framework. I'll be interested to see how Shields work in the next edition of RQ.

Cool, I just backed it at Hardcover Book + PDFs level Looks great

I kinda like that the two main types of Weapon Effects are Slashing and Crushing. Slashing doing double Damage Dice and Crushing doing double Damage Bonus, it makes it easy to remember. However for the sake of fairness I would have to rule that Crush grants a 1D4 DB in the advent of a character not having any natural Damage Bonus. Impaling is a good effect. It is more powerful, but comes at the cost that the attacker may not be able to retrieve the weapon for subsequent attacks, so that's the trade-off. I do hope the BGB Entangling effect is included, so nets, whips etc can have their effects. It just seems logical that this effect should be ported across to CRQ4. As an aside, I do like the success levels in CoC 7E and will find it difficult without them in a BRP game now. The extra level, the Hard Sucess (equal to half skill % score) just helps define opposed rolls etc I am considering using them in RQ if they are not in the new version. One of the areas I am toying with is Weapon Effects. I am considering that a Hard Success grants the possibility of a Weapon Effect, although it can be resisted by the opponent making a toughness roll (CON x5%). The Special Success would still remain as it would mean the Weapon Effect is automatically inflicted, as per current rules. I think it would make each weapon type feel different if there was a greater chance of these effects, which is a strength in RQ6/Mythras. Combat may end up being quicker in some cases. I'm just wondering if this would be a viable house rule, or if it is an unnecessary complication?

I love the above entry. A variation of the original Praxian Ball Of Tails, an arrogant perversion in keeping with the imperialistic times it came from. Nice

I don't have Mythras, but I do have RQ6 and apparently Mythras is almost the same thing. The Heroic Abilities from MRQ2/Legend are gone, but there are Gifts which can cover some of those abilities. There is no firm structure regarding how you get Gifts, but I feel these tend to be Divine Gifts from the Gods, or Preternatural Abilities granted by Pacts with otherworld beings etc. I guess the function is similar in that you can get Heroic Ability style benefits, although these are typically not things you would start beginning characters with, and many player-characters may not even attain them. Have the Gifts been kept in Mythras? If you are playing a pulpy game like Pirates, you are probably just better off with keeping Pirates Of Legend as it is, you will need all those Heroic Abilities to pull off Jack Sparrow. But if Mythras is anything like RQ6, then you don't really miss not having those Heroic Abilites, and the core rules feels a little 'cleaner' without them actually. Pretty much most of them can be covered narratively by high skill scores in any case. Also the Combat Style Traits and Combat Options pretty much cover things reasonably well. I'm slowly getting thru Mythras: Classic Fantasy, and I see you get Class Abilities based on your archetype, so these would also pretty much replace Heroic Abilities for these rules, tailored specifically to the character Class. Very old school classic fantasy, like the cover says

...and that is likely to be another great option!

To further complicate matters, there is also OpenQuest and MagicWorld...and that's just the Fantasy genre But I would say for Raven's purposes, just go with Mythras, or wait for the new version of RuneQuest to be published next year. (If impatient then possibly get RQ Classic, but remember it's a nostalgic reprint of a 30 yr old rule set. However the supplements will apparently be fully compatible with the new version of RQ, so the product line is well worth it for the Gloranthan campaign settings)

Its not much fun if someone rolls a special success and gets no damage effect at all. It kind of takes the 'special' out of the Special Success. For example if an weak academic sage character has a staff or small cudgel, then they should still get some effect if they roll a Special Success with it, even they aren't combat-orientated characters. I think I may likely return to that old house rule that if a character has no DB, then a Crush Effect grants them a DB of 1D4. If they have a DB, then the DB is doubled. But as an aside, I do like how Jeff is still sticking to the skeleton of RQ2 as a foundation. Especially in regards to keeping the stat block, it makes all the RQ Classic reprints so much more useful if they can be used with both versions of RQ published by Chaosium.

Slash sounds good, very much like RQ2. I really disliked the BGB replacing the RQ2 Slashing Effect with the Bleeding effect, losing 1 HP per round. It just seemed like the RQ2 version of Slashing was much more enjoyable for our troupe. The Crush effect you described also sounds like the RQ2 version as well, which was good, However I remember if a character had no Damage Bonus then it was a real let-down. The equivalent from RQ6, the Bashing Effect, worked well by increasing the Damage Bonus by one step, so that at least something occurred for characters with no permanent Damage Bonus (ie they received a +1D4 damage). I know that RQ6 is not an influence, but I do think it may have done blunt weapon effects a bit better than RQ2. In RQ2 I remember several occasions of player-characters with maces rolling special successes, and receiving no additional benefit if they weren't stronger than the average person. It may be gamist, but it did take a bit of fun out of it Yep those Uz Great Trolls sure did scare my player-characters a fair bit with their mauls The BGB also had an Entangling Effect. It seemed to work well, and obviously something like that may need to be in the new version of RQ as well, as it was useful with nets, whips, etc

It makes sense to have Divine/Rune Magic in matrixes, it allows you to have 'blessed' or 'god-touched' items and such. It sounds very Gloranthan if the matrixes have to be in items of function and relevance to a specific cult. For example, a Babeestor Gor Rune Spell must be placed in a battle axe. Although I started with RQ2, I ended up playing most of my Gloranthan games with RQ3, and later with BGB and RQ6. I would find it a very different setting if Rune Magic is not able to be put into matrixes.

I would think you may like 'Investigator Weapons Vol 1 & 2', and also 'Aces High'. Investigator Weapons Vol 1 pretty much covers late 1800s and early 1900s. Vol 2 covers from WW2 to the contemporary era. Volume 1 is what you may find of interest I think, although the bulk of it will have 1920s and 1930s guns, but there are a fair amount from the late 1800s: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/100789/Investigator-Weapons-volume-1 The BRP's monograph 'Aces High' has a reasonable amount of western-era firearms as well, plus other info that may be relevant for your setting: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/82068/Aces-High Not sure where to start on Steampunk. The BRP Renaissance system 'Clockwork & Chivalry' does have rules for Clockwork inventions, which may or may not be what you are after. I think I would just let my imagination run wild with steampunk inventions, and stat the technology up as I need it.

I'm unsure if this has already been presented in the Design Notes or not: Are we aware of what weapon damage effects occur when a Special Success is rolled in combat in CRQ4? I cannot remember if Stormbringer or Magic World had these effects, as I have mainly followed the other lines of BRP (Given that SB/MW use a Major Wound table instead of rolling Hit Locations, I suspect weapon effects may have been different, or perhaps not included). RQ2/ RQ Classic has the Impaling effect , with optional rules for Slashing and Crushing effects. For some reason I recollect RQ3 only having the Impaling effect, I may be wrong. The BGB covers similar concepts with slightly different mechanics, with different weapons granting one of these effects upon a Special Success attack roll: Bleeding, Crushing, Impaling, and Entangling. CoC 7E just has Extreme Damage, and the GM narrates whatever trappings seem relevant to the situation. I am just wondering if it has been presented anywhere how these effects are likely to be portrayed in the next version of RQ?

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I could ramble on all day about the many subjective pros and cons of both systems, but it would probably just kick off a flame war. Both systems are versions of BRP, which means they are both great. Have fun

I think Mostali could be playable as unusual oddities, although getting into their alien mind-set may be quite difficult for many people. Just as long as players don't play them like typical high fantasy dwarven tropes then it could work. I picture them to be very Brian Froudish these days, and I think the goblins from the 1980s 'Labryinth' movie have much more in common with Mostali than the Dwarves from The Hobbit films. I haven't read all of Larry Niven's 'The Mote In God's Eye', but I'm familiar with the aliens in it, The 'Moties'. Their vocation-caste system is a pretty good analogy for Mostali society, and given that the book is from the mid 1970s then it is bound to have influenced Greg Stafford's views on The Mostali to some extent. Steam-punk goblinoid folk who behave quite eccentric and impersonal at times pretty much wraps them up. I don't think humans would trust them very much, other than for trade purposes, and with good reason. The Mostali plans to rebuild The World Machine may not necessarily benefit mankind...

Yes that sounded like " Last drinks guys, move next door if you want to keep going into the wee hours"

For RQ3 & BGB we used to rule that a normal success gave you a check, and a crit gave you one as well. Each subsequent successful use of a 'ticked skill' gave a +1% to your chance with the Experience Roll for that skill. That seemed reasonable, the more you used a skill, the more likely you were able to succeed in a Skill Check Gain due to the bonus accrued. It worked well for our troupe. I think CoC 7E is pretty vague on what qualifies an action to award a Skill Check, but at the minimum the action requires a Hard Success (under half of regular skill value). This is a pretty good idea in my opinion, as it provides a base mechanic for what constitutes as a significant roll, and of course the GM arbitrates beyond this. As an aside, having the CoC 7E skill levels comes in handy in many aspects of the game, and it's something I think would be beneficial in the new RQ as well. Considering it's the same BRP origin system I don't see why some innovations from one can't be used for the other, and it only adds one more degree of success to the current RQ rules. I have found this this doesn't add any degree of complexity, it just helps clarify alot of things during game play.

No it's me that wasn't very clear. What I was clarifying is how would you make Skill Improvement Checks? Do you make the Experience Rolls on the base skill, or on the skill speciality?

How would Skill Checks work in such a system? On the skill specialty (ie: Sword), or the base skill (ie: Melee)?