Mankcam

I like what you have done with the site Newt. I mainly follow your BRP OpenQuest products, although I do love the flavour of Crypt & Things (but D&D is really not to my tastes). However I'm very interested in Monkey and impatiently waiting until the next edition is available before I get my teeth into it!

They were heaps of pages, which wasn't really needed considering we already had a treasure factor table in the RQ2 corebook. I would of preferred more magic items instead. So if you have Borderlands & Beyond, you have all the magic items from the Plunder book, but are not really missing anything by not having all those pre-rolled treasure factor tables.

I loved the flavoursome items in Plunder, but those treasure factor tables were cumbersome and we just used the simpler RQ2 version instead. I was glad that part of Plunder wasn't reprinted in Borderlands & Beyond.

I think we may have initially played it that way when when we first played RQ2 in the mid 1980s, although my older cousin was the main GM back then. I became a GM when we updated to RQ3 and I don't remember playing the SR system that way. I think we just found it simpler keeping the same SR for multiple melee rounds.

It works with CoC 7E skill levels quite easily. If using an unfamiliar weapon, then the GM would simply calls for either a Hard roll or an Extreme Roll, depending upon how similar the weapon is to the typical weapon associated with that skill. (Hard Roll = under half regular skill %, just like a BGB Difficult Action. Extreme Roll = under 1/5 regular skill %, like a BGB Special Success) You could easily take it a step further by saying that using a favoured weapon of superior quality may grant the player a Bonus Dice (akin to a BGB bonus modifier, or perhaps an Easy action), or some other benefit, relevant to the weapon type or situation. If CRQ4 uses a similar skill level system as CoC 7E then lots of little things like this fit together nicely. I hope this is at least considered for the new edition.

Yes I have noticed this for some time as well

I wouldn't think runic augmentation would be perceived as a magical effect unless it is augmenting an actual spell. I think it will just increase the chances of using mundane skills that it is relevant for. So for example, a character may swim more effectively if they have the Water Rune, but perhaps the same thing could just as easily occur if they have an affinity with the Mastery Rune. Whilst Gloranthan spells tend to be flashy and visual, I doubt there would be any overt or obvious effect using the Runes with mundane skills, other than a more successful outcome. The skill itself is just more likely to succeed, due to the character mindfully using their runic affinities. So I don't think I envision using Runes as augmentation to feel like an Open Magic system. Rather instead I think it is closer to the BRP BGB rule of 'related skill/knowledge', except with some wider applications. If this was RQ6/Mythras, then Rune Affinities would just be classified as additional 'Passions' if the game is set in Glorantha. I need to check this, but I think Jeff posted somewhere in the design notes that Rune Affinities grant +20% in CRQ4, which is a pretty substantial bonus. So although the effect may not appear overtly magical, it could seem like people are almost preternatural at times, depending upon which skills they use their Runes with.

Actually I quite like this idea. Simple, yet effective. However given the granularity of RQ, this rule might be better applied to CoC.

Yes I made that mistake regarding Basic Magic, probably because RQ2 categorised 'Battle Magic' as an example of Basic Magic. Calling the common magic Spirit Magic (like in RQ3) is reasonable, especially considering that it is also called this in HQG, keeping some setting consistency between the rule sets. But getting back to Sorcery, I think from what I have read so far it sounds pretty workable and feels that it belongs in this setting. It's got me interested, especially since I have a fascination with the contemporary portrayal of the Malkioni people.

I am assuming that the CRQ4 Spirit Magic is the same as it was in RQ3, which was renamed 'Common Magic' in MRQ and 'Basic Magic' in HQ. I actually prefer calling it 'Common Magic' or 'Basic Magic', but I remember Jeff clarified that these spells are what he refers to as being 'Spirit Magic'.

Looks like you can also choose Spirit Magic as an option

I do like the requirements of Sorcery being linked to literacy and intelligence. It reinforces an academic and possibly also aesthetic approach to a complex body of magical knowledge. Given that the Zzaburi are the sage caste of the Malkioni (who conceptually remind me of the ancient Vedic Brahmin 'philosopher-priest' caste), it stands to reason that this magic would not be accessible by those of average to low intelligence, and also to those from more rudimentary educational backgrounds. I wonder if Spirit Magic is also commonly used by some Malkioni? I can't remember if this was clarified earlier or not. I think it goes without saying that Spirit Magic would be common in Honotheistic places like Safelster, due to some cultural 'cross-pollination' with people of non-Malkioni backgrounds. However it also stands to reason that Malkioni from Rokari and Hrestoli backgrounds may also consider Spirit Magic a practical option for those unable to learn Sorcery. I could see folk of the Dronar caste as the most common practitioners of Spirit Magic in Malkioni society, especially as many of them may not be literate. In this case I wonder from whom it is taught? Would it be taught from the local Zzubari scribe? Or perhaps more informally through a hand-to-mouth approach amongst villagers? In any case, I do like the restrictions on who can use Sorcery. I'm not sure I like the actual title of 'Free INT', I think another term could be more appropriate ( Arete?, Arcane Memory?, I dunno); but the actual game mechanic concept works for me.

Those two top swords certainly could pass as Gloranthan rapiers. I especially like the finer pointed blade of the top sword, as it definitely can be presented as a rapier, yet has the ancient flavour a Gloranthan weapon should have. I could see my Safelstan rogue wandering the dingy streets of Senatos at night with one of those in a worn leather shoulder sling. I could also envision the Horali caste having more finer or intricate versions to be worn as practical ornamental swords in social settings, depending upon their role and rank within the caste; or perhaps ones that signify what War Society they are associated with. I think they would proudly wear them in well presented side scabbards.

The colichemarde is perhaps more like the iconic rapiers that most of us think of, not too far off from sport fencing swords like epees and foils. I definitely think the Gloranthan rapiers would be similar to the ones posted earlier in this thread. Those swords looked much more ancient, and considering they were posted by Jeff and MOB, the current developers for Glorantha, then I think these views would prevail. I would not have initially envisioned those ancient swords as rapiers, they look like a cross between a long knife and a shortsword. However if archaeologists are calling them rapiers then I'm not one to argue. Those swords do look more like a blade I would expect to see wielded in Glorantha, rather than a 'flashing blade' style rapier that I'm more accustomed to imagining in the hands of a hero from an Alexandre Dumas novel. I do like MJ Sadique's background provided for the french rapier (using Sa-metal etc), so if it works for his/her vision of Glorantha then that's cool. MJSadique has given it alot of flavour. However for myself, the colichmarde is far too Blackpowder era to be a typical weapon in Glorantha. Nice pics though

I still greatly prefer narrative descriptions, although I find Google Images great as a source of visuals for real life historic scenes, NPCs, and atmospheric settings. I also sometimes search for images from first person PC games at times, and many of these images are also great for setting the scene from the PCs point of view. Using mood music from Spotify and YouTube playlists has also been very handy. So having internet access at the gaming table has been a big asset to my games, and a WiFi Tablet is probably the best prop I have available to me as a GM. Occasionally expressing relative locations with bottle lids etc or a rough hand drawn map has been useful at times for a reference, but not as a centrepiece in the middle of the gaming table. I love board games like Fortune And Glory, Arkham Horror, etc but I have found that the gamism of grid boards and professional minis just doesn't work well for most of my roleplaying games. I have found that it has been especially detrimental to the atmosphere for my WoD and CoC games in particular. I have not seen CoC played at the local comic hobby shop, so I'm unsure if that crowd would be able to adjust to running a game without minis. D&D 5E and Warhammer tend to be the main games played, so minis have a huge focus with these games. A lot of fun, but not how I prefer to play RPGs.

Create your own playlist and add these soundtracks: 'The Omen', 'Rosemary's Baby', 'Psycho', 'Warlock', 'Halloween', and Nox Arcana's albums 'Blackthorn Asylum', 'Winter Knight' and' Necronomicon'; that should do the trick for classic horror, there is some creepy stuff there. If you want to make it more pulpy era-specific, add in the 'Carnivale' and 'Boardwalk Empire' soundtracks, and some occasional random tracks from Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, and Jelly Roll Morton for that early Jazz era flavour (but don't add too much, otherwise it will ruin the atmosphere of the more horror themed soundtracks) If you are after a contemporary urban horror atmosphere, then keep the original soundtracks outlined above as the foundation for the playlist, but instead of the 'Carnivale' and 'Boardwalk Empire' soundtracks, throw in the 'The Crow' and 'Underworld' soundtracks in their place. Then instead of random tracks from the Cotton Club Jazz Era musicians, perhaps scatter some tunes from bands like Goblin, The Residents, Bauhas, Nick Cave, Marilyn Manson, Tool, and Rob Zombie. Just enough to add a dark or weird urban flavour, but not enough to detract from the horror themed soundtracks already described. You can find an abundance of horror-themed playlists on Spotify, and you can save yourself a bit of time just saving one of these. If you type in 'LURKING FEAR' in the search bar then you'll see one of mine that I created for classic era horror rpg atmosphere. Type it in, if you dare...

Props like telegrams or pictures of artefacts or era-specific locations. That's about it, the rest typically is just imagination. I have used a map a few times to show relative location of characters in a major combat scene, but this is for the more cinematic CoC sessions. I think I showed a dockside warehouse layout, and a Zeppelin layout. It was useful, but not necessary. I can only remember doing it a handful of times. I have done it a few more times in RQ, but still try to not make that a big focus of any combat scene. I certainly wouldn't recommend doing more than that. Using minis and a grid map would kill the tension and be far too gamist for any of my games, whether RQ or CoC. Narrating a good description has always been my preferred way to GM.

My stance simply is that there isn't a clear reason to specifically call faith-driven magic 'Rune Magic' (as it was in RQ2), when other magic exists (like Sorcery) that is equally Rune Magic. Rune Magic should be a broad umbrella term to describe the more potent magic, of which there are several forms.

I tend to run my campaigns with a low-pulp adventure flavour and go for campaigns with multiple locations and global travel. Bringing each location to life is a lot of fun for the GM, and quite immersive for the player-characters. We started off in New York 1920s with the Edge of Darkness scenario , moved down to New Orleans briefly, then followed some threads abroad to France (The Secrets of Marseilles scenario). Things rambled a bit through unconnected scenarios until moving back to New York and then I moved into running the Masks of Nylarthotep campaign. This one is quite sprawling, and the characters have spent several sessions in New York, then England (London and Essex), and now they are in Egypt (Cairo and surrounds). These kind of campaigns are pulpy and more action orientated than most standard Cthulhu scenarios, and I think this is why it works. Action scenes can end up being great centerpieces, and fun cinematic scenes keep the game moving nicely. I am porting it over to the official Pulp Cthulhu 7E rules, although I am using only a few of the options from that book otherwise it would get too pulpy and lose any threat to the characters. I think the other reason this campaign works as there is also a fair bit of mystery involved rather than grisly horror every minute, and unraveling the threads to the meta-plot is a big thing here. I tend to keep most of the villains at mundane human-level, and have supernatural elements & mythos creatures only rarely show up. This keeps things at a reasonable level, and when a mythos creature turns up it really is a big deal. I think this is important in any campaign, as overuse of the mythos leads to you having difficulties building suspense and really lessens the impact of the mythos. So fear of the unknown is another aspect that keeps the momentum going in my campaigns. My campaigns are more 'investigation-action' flavoured than the usual 'investigation-horror' atmosphere in most Cthulhu scenarios. I think I would only run 'purist' Cthulhu games if I was running one-shots, or perhaps a series of interlocked scenarios around Lovecraft Country. For the long spanning campaigns I thought the purist flavour may get a bit oppressive for my troupe, and the other difficulty would be the issues associated with a high chance of character turnover. Regularly coming up with reasons to replace insane, incapacitated, or deceased characters with new characters would prove really troublesome. Trying to find reasons why the new characters would be invested in the same goals as the original PCs would require some creativity. It's not that it cannot be done, but playing such a campaign without some 'pulp insulation' would end up being a real meat-grinder, and I doubt that any original character would make it all the way through, and the risk of TPK could also be quite high. Whilst this may be a novelty in a one-shot scenario, it definitely could be quite challenging to run a long-term campaign if that keeps happening. For these reasons I prefer my campaigns to be 'pulpy' rather than 'purist', although many others seem to run 'purist' campaigns with no concerns.

'Parvis & Big Rubble' makes a good companion volume to 'Borderlands & Beyond', given that they share the setting of Prax. The 'Borderlands & Beyond' book also includes the Plunder section which lists many unique Gloranthan items to give a good flavour to the setting. 'Griffin Mountain' is a much more self contained region further north in the lands of Balazar & The Elder Wilds. However it is really one of the best sandbox settings you'll find. You really can't go wrong with any of the Gloranthan Classics series, they have all stood the test of time. Enjoy!

I tend to feel that in the setting, everyone probably thinks of their higher magics as Rune Magic, regardless of whether they have learnt from theistic or sorcerous approaches. That loosely fits with what you are saying regarding the differences between game constructs and in-world perspectives.

Thanks for the explanations everyone. I kinda knew most of this, and unfortunately they don't really answer my query why one form of magic is called Rune Magic when other magical styles also access the Runes just as much. I suspect it remains mainly because that is more in keeping with the original rules, which is reasonable given the game design aim is to remain close to RQ2 in many aspects. No dramas, I appreciate all the responses anyway

Thanks for that Jeff. Yes those concepts are more or less how I was thinking except just one bit: So I'm just wondering why is the faith-based magic is specifically named 'Rune Magic'? It was called that in RQ2, but I assumed that was because it was the only magic in RQ2 that was implied to have such a direct access to Runes, and thus it was logical to name it Rune Magic back then. However now we also have an intellectual-based magic which is directly involved with the Runes just as much (ie: Sorcery), and it seems odd to me that one magic style calls itself Rune Magic whilst the other style does not. They both sound like different forms of Rune Magic to me. I think I became more familiar with the terms 'Divine Magic' and 'Theism', but I do like the sound of the name Rune Magic. I know you went with the term Rune Magic for faith-based magic in HQG, so I guess at least these new RQ rules will be consistent with the setting portrayed in HQG. However it still strikes me a little unusual, for the said reasons. No big deal, I think I'll have to tweak the YGMV rule on this one if it doesn't make sense for my players. It's still sounding pretty good to me either way.

Always loved the covers of 'River Of Cradles' and 'Sun Country', they were great!

Yes it would be good if each system did a particular thing better than the other, that would also add a bit of flavour. I have been assuming that that there is Basic Magic (Spirit Magic/Common Magic) which is an intuitive-approach to magic, available to all most people. Then there is the more potent Rune Magic (Animism, Theism, Sorcery) which cover an animistic-driven approach, faith-driven approach, and academic-driven approach, respectively; and these are available to specialists, depending upon cultural background. But that's just me trying to make sense of it all, and probably slightly contradictory to the actual canon. Which is what I'm trying to clarify.